Lindsay Clancy will remain at a Massachusetts psychiatric hospital until further notice as she awaits the fate of her triple-murder case after a stunning mistrial on Friday.
Clancy, 36, will return to Tewksbury Hospital, the state-run facility where she was previously being held, her defense lawyer Kevin Reddington confirmed on Friday after his last-ditch appeal to stave off a mistrial was denied by the state’s Supreme Court.
The jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision — due to one male holdout juror — about whether Clancy was criminally responsible for strangling her three kids, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, in the basement of their Duxbury home on Jan. 24, 2023.
Lindsay Clancy will remain at a Massachusetts psychiatric hospital until further notice as she awaits the fate of her case after a stunning mistrial on Friday. USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
Clancy, who claims she was in the throes of postpartum psychosis and overprescribed a cocktail of psychiatric meds, then slit her wrists and throat and threw herself from the second story of the home, leaving her partially paralyzed.
Dr. Avram Mack, who formerly worked at Nemours Children’s Health in Delaware, painted a picture of Clancy’s dreary routine at the psychiatric facility in Tewksbury when he took the stand at her trial on Aug. 21.
“Mostly, she described, she stays in bed or on her own,” Mack told the courtroom, referencing interviews with Clancy at the hospital.
“I don’t think she described interacting with patients very much. There were a couple of ways in which she did interact with staff, at least. There was a therapist that she described working with,” the shrink said.
Clancy, who has to use a wheelchair after her suicide attempt, also worked with a physical therapist at the hospital, but “wasn’t very interested” in the physical therapy.
“She wasn’t interested in the food there,” Mack continued.
She described having visitors “on a not infrequent basis, and that sometimes, she was able to eat food or drinks that were brought in by them.”
Clancy also described “that she wasn’t very interested in her own hygiene or grooming,” he added.
“Showering is embarrassing. It requires staff to help her, and that’s one way in which she would rather not,” Mack said. “It may also be that she described a lack of interest … so, it’s both components.”
“She described feeling depressed, which she termed situational depression,” the psychiatrist said. “She described feeling—I’m not sure the exact term she used—but feeling miserable, not wanting to be alive.”
Mack, who got into a fiery exchange with Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer while testifying in the case, resigned from Nemours Children’s Health on the same day he testified.
Clancy will remain at the facility under the same murder charges as prosecutors weigh their next steps on whether or not to try her again with a new jury.
Her attorneys could petition for bail, though it is likely she will remain in Tewksbury Hospital under the same bail conditions while she awaits the fate of a new trial, Brad Bailey, a Boston defense attorney and former prosecutor, told The Post.
FINLAND has staged Europe’s largest defence drills since World War Two as the nation readies for the horrors of future warfare.
Thousands of people, including students, were involved in the operation responding to the threat of bio-warfare, nuclear fallout and missile strikes.
Finnish conscripts measure radiation levels at a shelter in Kuopio, Finland, during defence drillsCredit: AP
The drill played out in a civil defence shelter hewn into rock, behind doors built to withstand nuclear or biological attack.
Eerie footage shows two Finnish conscripts dressed in hazmat suits and breathing masks measuring radiation levels.
Their role is to turn a cave into a refuge for thousands of people.
Inside, in what is normally a sports hall, hundreds of people slept overnight on trestle beds.
In the scenario, critical infrastructure in the central Finnish city of Kuopio, including power and water, has been disrupted by cyber-attacks.
And there is the threat of missile strikes from Finland’s neighbour, Russia.
The goal is for local authorities and civilians to rehearse what they would do if they came under attack for real.
It comes as Russia ramps up its threats against the West, drawing Nato nations into a tense stand-off.
Officials have accused Moscow of setting fires, attacking water facilities and power stations, and launching drones into European airspace.
Finland’s border with Russia stretches more than 830miles from the Baltic Sea up to the Arctic Circle.
The Nato nation has been on high alert as Putin continues to wage his spiralling war in Ukraine.
In May, the country deployed fighter jets after a suspected drone entered the country’s airspace near Helsinki.
Finland has also announced plans to ramp up its military spending.
Retired Army Colonel Asko Muhonen, who organized the exercise in Kuopio, said Finland needs to learn lessons from Ukraine.
While the biggest shelter in Kuopio can fit 7,000 people, Ukrainians sometimes only have a few minutes to flee to a subway station or underground parking lot.
That means people need a shelter they can reach easily that offers some form of protection, Muhonen added.
In 2024, along with Sweden, Finland joined Nato, following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
THIS is the sickening moment migrants in Ceuta are caught parading a baby dolphin around a beach before reportedly beating it to death.
Shocking footage shows the crowd of laughing migrants all trying to touch the small marine mammal after they dragged it out of the sea.
Shocking footage shows the crowd of laughing migrants after pulling the baby dolphin out of the seaCredit: Solarpix
The disturbing footage, which appears to have been filmed by one of those in the group, shows the baby dolphin washed up on the shore on Trampolin Beach.
Two men in high-vis jackets and gloves run over and check on the calf before several migrants swarm around them.
One of the illegal migrants then drags the dolphin by its face out of the water and onto the rocks.
He then picks it up with a smirk on his face and holds it up so others can touch it – including several young teenagers.
The man then hoists it above his head as he flashes a sickening grin as the calf tries to move in his hands.
One of the high-vis officials tries to get the man to put the animal back but he ignores the pleas.
During the chaos, one migrant allegedly hit the animal on the head with a stick and seriously injured it before it later died, reports Telecinco.
Enraged locals quickly ran onto Trampolin Beach in the North African enclave to help order the migrants to put down the dolphin.
Screams of “no” can be heard in the video as they manage to wrestle the dolphin off one of the men and put the calf back in the water but local reports claimed it was already too late.
The harrowing scenes sparked an online petition demanding the men responsible were arrested and charged with animal cruelty.
Nadia Garcia Gomez launched the petition as she claimed in a post: “On Wednesday, September 2, 2026, a disoriented dolphin calf swimming near the shore at Trampolin Beach, in Ceuta, was brutally pulled from the water.
“Eyewitnesses and local media reported that the animal was handled as if it were an object and violently struck on the head with a stick, causing its immediate death.”
Nadia continued: “This act of extreme and unjustifiable cruelty cannot go unpunished.
“Dolphins are strictly protected species under Spanish and European laws, and mistreatment of them constitutes a serious criminal offence.
“We demand that all necessary resources be used to formally identify those involved in this killing and that the full weight of the law fall upon them.”
It comes as almost 5,000 illegal migrants are still in Ceuta over a month on from the major border breach that saw an estimated 72,000 men, women and children swarm the enclave.
A mail-in ballot, during the Pennsylvania primary election, is displayed in this illustration picture taken in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., May 19, 2026. REUTERS/Hannah Beier/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights
President Donald Trump’s administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to let it enforce a new U.S. Postal Service rule tightening the use of mail-in ballots, moving swiftly after a judge temporarily blocked the regulation ahead of November’s midterm elections.
In an emergency request, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to lift Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani’s order temporarily preventing the USPS from enforcing the new rule, which it adopted following an executive order by the Republican president to restrict mail-in ballots.
The USPS regulation would impose new voter-specific data and ballot envelope standards, and potentially refuse the delivery of ballots that do not comply, which critics say could disrupt thousands of legitimate votes as the November 3 vote approaches.
Republicans are locked in a tight battle to retain control of Congress in the election. Critics say restricting mail-in ballots would stand to disproportionately benefit Republicans given that Democratic voters traditionally have been more likely to use mail-in ballots.
It is the second time that the administration has turned to the Supreme Court as it defends Trump’s directive against legal challenges by states and voting rights groups. On August 24 the court lifted an earlier injunction imposed by Talwani in June blocking Trump’s order.
That decision, powered by the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, faulted a coalition of mostly Democratic-governed states for suing too soon, but left the door open to another challenge. The court’s three liberal justices dissented. RULE WOULD TIGHTEN STANDARDS FOR MAIL BALLOT DELIVERY
Under the new USPS rule, states must provide lists, opens new tab of mail ballot recipients to the postal service and use agency-approved outbound and return ballot mail envelopes outfitted with unique barcodes. The postal service could then refuse to send out ballots that do not comply with the new standards or are associated with voters who do not appear on the lists.
Trump, who signed his executive order targeting mail-in ballots in March, has for years cast doubt on their security, although evidence of voter fraud is rare. Trump has made false claims of widespread fraud in U.S. elections including his 2020 loss to former Democratic President Joe Biden.
The administration in its written filing on Thursday urged the Supreme Court to allow it to implement an “important federal policy to protect the mails from being used to commit voter fraud.”
A coalition of mostly Democratic-governed states and Washington, D.C., as well as a number of voting rights groups, challenged the new USPS rule.
Talwani issued a temporary order on August 27 blocking the rule for 14 days, finding that it likely violates the U.S. Constitution, under which the states administer elections, and would be impossible for the states to comply with given the rapidly approaching midterms.
The Justice Department asked the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to put the judge’s order on hold, but did not wait for a decision before turning to the Supreme Court.
Talwani also held a hearing on Thursday to consider whether to issue a longer-term injunction.
President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday proposed new regulations that would strip schools of tax-exempt status if they offer targeted support to specific racial groups.
The rules proposed by the U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service are the latest salvo in the administration’s campaign to eradicate diversity programs and end what officials say is discrimination against white students in favor of students of color.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks while hosting a dinner in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 2, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein Purchase Licensing Rights
Civil rights advocates say diversity practices help address historic inequities for marginalized ethnic minorities who were legally discriminated against for decades.
The proposal, which is subject to a public comment period and would likely draw legal challenges if implemented, draws on recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that limited how colleges and universities can consider race in admissions.
Treasury’s proposal would cover admissions, educational policies, scholarships and loans, athletics and “every other school-administered or school-supported program.” It would apply to programs that consider race “for any purpose,” including mitigating past racial discrimination.
“Schools rebranding race-based preferences as equitable, inclusive, or diversity-enhancing does not change their discriminatory nature,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
The American Association of University Professors, which advocates for academic freedom and has sued the Trump administration to block funding cuts, said it is considering legal action in response to the proposal.
“This is not neutral enforcement of civil-rights law. It is an affirmative attempt to turn civil-rights law against the very people it was enacted to protect,” AAUP President Todd Wolfson said in a statement. “For half a century, federal policy recognized that measures intended to dismantle entrenched racial exclusion are not equivalent to policies designed to preserve it.”
The Treasury estimated the change could affect as many as 18,000 schools at all education levels and 750,000 students who may qualify for race-based scholarships.
The proposal would not bar private schools from maintaining a religious mission, curriculum or program, and religious schools could continue selecting students based on religious affiliation, according to a Treasury Department statement.
Treasury also said the proposal would not prevent schools from assisting disadvantaged students using race-neutral criteria such as income, geography or first-generation status.
The Trump administration has cracked down on diversity policies at colleges. Rights advocates say the crackdown threatens free speech, due process and academic freedom.
Trump has singled out Harvard University, the country’s oldest and richest university, in particular with funding freezes, investigations and threats to the school’s tax-exempt status.
(This story has been refiled to add dropped words on targeting racial groups in paragraph 1.)
An explosion that ripped through a wedding celebration in southern Iran on Tuesday, killing four people and injuring at least 68 others, likely resulted from a direct hit by a U.S. munition and not a ricochet off another target, according to an analysis by weapons experts who reviewed images and video verified by Reuters.
The incident in the small town of Kuhestak has reignited concerns about the civilian toll in the U.S. war with Iran and marks the most dramatic case since a missile struck an Iranian primary school in February, killing scores of children and teachers inside.
The U.S. Central Command had announced its forces carried out multiple strikes across Iran’s south on Sept. 1, targeting Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps air defense sites, radar systems, and communications facilities. The barrage came in retaliation for earlier Iranian attacks on U.S. military assets around the Gulf.
A screengrab from a drone video taken on September 2 shows damage to a courtyard and a hole in the roof of a home where a wedding ceremony was held. Video obtained by REUTERS
On Thursday, U.S. Vice President JD Vance said the United States was investigating the strike. “We’re investigating it because obviously we care. We want to know,” Vance said during a White House press briefing.
The U.S. military said it was aware of reports and was looking into them.
Iran’s delegation to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On the night of the attacks, dozens of residents had gathered in a home in Kuhestak for a wedding ceremony, according to eyewitnesses. During the party, a munition likely struck the building’s roof, according to photos and video verified by Reuters and reviewed by experts.
Reuters shared video and images of the incident with four military weapons experts who said the damage was consistent with a direct hit, as opposed to secondary damage from a munition ricocheting off a separate target. Three of the experts said the munition was likely a U.S. weapon, rather than an errant Iranian air defense missile.
One of the experts said the weapon may have simply missed its objective.
“Given the number of bombs that have been dropped, this does occur from time to time even with the most sophisticated guidance systems,” said Gareth Collett, a retired British Army brigadier who specialized in counterterrorist bomb disposal and holds a doctorate in explosives engineering.
After the strike, bloody shoes lay amid the rubble, and wedding decorations that are common in that part of Iran were strewn about, the images show.
One eyewitness sent a voice note to Reuters moments after the strike, saying: “Kuhestak is destroyed. Four, five, ten houses were destroyed. Many people are under the rubble. God help us.”
Local residents spoke on condition of anonymity.
Kuhestak is destroyed. 4, 5, 10 houses were destroyed. Many people are under the rubble. God help us.
Local resident, voice note recorded moments after the strike
Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the U.S. military had carried out strikes in the area of Kuhestak on Sept. 1, specifically targeting the town’s telecommunications tower.
That tower is roughly 135 meters from the site of the wedding celebration, according to satellite imagery. The tower was hit at approximately 9:30 PM local time, according to Iranian media.
One of the U.S. officials said the government is looking at various scenarios related to the casualties at the wedding, including whether they were caused by a U.S. strike, some sort of ricochet of an Iranian air defense missile, or an errant interceptor itself.
The count of four deaths and 68 injuries came from Balochestan Human Rights Documentation Network and Haalvsh, which monitor and document human rights abuses.
Three of the people killed were guests of the wedding – Kolsoom Mollahi Najhandania, 43; Zarkhatoon Taheri, 50; and four-year-old Amir Mohammad Karimi – according to the groups. The fourth person, 16-year-old Mohammad Mallahi, was killed while riding his motorcycle near the communications tower.
The names have also been confirmed in Iranian media.
The incident comes more than six months after a missile destroyed a primary school in Minab on Feb. 28, hours after the start of the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran that launched the current conflict. That hit killed more than 175 children and teachers, according to Iranian officials.
The Pentagon has not publicly released the findings of its investigation into the Minab strike, which was the U.S. military’s biggest civilian casualty incident in decades. But Reuters first reported on March 5 that an initial, internal U.S. military investigation showed U.S. forces were likely responsible for that strike on the opening day of the war with Iran.
The minister highlighted the challenges of ensuring energy security for India’s 1.4 billion people and said both Ukraine’s and India’s perspectives on the issue should be respected.
Russia has remained the largest supplier of India’s crude
Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, who was in Kyiv for an official visit, said curtailing India’s purchase of Russian oil will not stop the war in Ukraine, pushing back on the Western position that cutting Moscow’s economic lifeline would force it to abandon the conflict. Addressing the media, the minister stressed that the conflict, which is in its fifth year, could only be resolved by dialogue, diplomacy, and negotiation.
“This conflict, which is today in its fifth year, will not be solved because somebody is buying or not buying oil or alumina or minerals or metals or fertiliser. This conflict will be solved by dialogue, diplomacy, and negotiation,” Jaishankar said after he met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.
The minister highlighted the challenges of ensuring energy security for India’s 1.4 billion people and said both Ukraine’s and India’s perspectives on the issue should be respected.
“I think it’s also important that all of you get the challenges of providing energy for 1.4 billion people at a time when the world energy situation is very, very difficult. So, I would say, I mean, this is something where clearly the Ukraine side has its perspective, which we respect, and we have ours, which I would expect others to also respect.”
Western Pressure on India
Jaishankar made the remarks while responding to a question on whether New Delhi was planning to reduce its purchases of Russian oil if the United States approved legislation providing for sanctions or tariffs against nations that continue to buy Moscow’s energy.
Western nations, including the US and UK, back Kyiv’s argument that choking Moscow’s energy trade will starve its continued cash flow, fueling its war in Ukraine.
Last month, the US Senate passed a bipartisan bill that could authorise President Donald Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100 per cent on goods from countries, including India and China, that continue importing Russian oil and gas. The legislation argues that such trade supports Moscow’s economy and helps finance its military operations in Ukraine.
India’s Russian Oil Trade
Russia has remained the largest supplier of India’s crude, despite months of American pressure. However, imports have fallen sharply in August after reaching record levels in June and July.
Till 2021, before Russia launched the war against Ukraine, Russian oil hardly made up 0.2 per cent of India’s crude imports.
However, following Russia’s February 2022 invasion, when the Western countries shunned Moscow, New Delhi — the world’s third-largest oil importer — became the largest buyer of discounted Russian crude.
India buys about 88 per cent of its crude oil from overseas, which is converted into fuels like petrol and diesel. One-third of it comes from Russia. In August, India imported about 2.1 million barrels of crude from Russia per day, according to data from maritime intelligence firm Kpler.
The figure, which accounted for more than 40 per cent of India’s crude imports, was down from about 2.6 million barrels per day in June and July, data showed.
Lindsay Clancy’s wheelchair appears to have a bizarre nod to her lawyer — in the form of a sticker, eagle-eyed trial observers noticed this week.
A pink sticker reading “#sidebah” affixed to a drink holder carrying a Diet Coke on Clancy’s wheelchair was captured in a photo on Wednesday as jury deliberations continued in the Massachusetts mother-of-three’s murder trial.
The sticker’s phrase, which has been the subject of scrutiny on social media, appears to refer to the way her lawyer, Kevin Reddington, says sidebar in his Boston accent.
A “#sidebah” sticker was seen on Lindsay Clancy’s wheelchair as the jury resumed deliberations during her murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. Greg Derr/Pool The Patriot Ledger via AP
Reddington’s Bostonian pronunciation was evident on Thursday as he spoke about a sidebar in which it was revealed that a juror allegedly “refused” to follow the law’s definition of “reasonable doubt” in determining a verdict.
The passionate criminal defense lawyer, who has held Clancy’s hand through tough moments of the trial, has become a feminist icon among many supporters of the postpartum moms.
It remains unclear whether Clancy placed the sticker on her own wheelchair, but the lighthearted quip puzzled some social media users who have followed the grueling, six-week trial.
“#LindsayClancy has the audacity to put a “joke” sticker “SideBah” on her drink holder?!?!!! Does she think that’s all a joke?!” one user wrote on X.
“The kids are in the ground and she thinks this is a damn joke ?? Tell me that’s not who she is,” another user said.
President Trump praised Maria Bartiromo as a “true warrior” and predicted that fans of the longtime Fox News host “will not be happy” after she was abruptly axed from the cable giant.
Bartiromo’s sudden exit after a 12-year run at the network with no explanation left the president shocked Thursday night.
“I can’t believe Maria Bartiromo is no longer going to have her great show(s) on FoxNews/Business,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Maria Bartiromo, host of Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” is no longer with the cable giant she joined more than 12 years ago. Getty Images
“Three different shows, always number one,” he wrote, adding, “Maria is a total professional, and a true warrior.”
Trump also warned that Bartiromo’s “fans, of which there are many, will not be happy.”
Patient Tim Andrews (centre) with Dr Tatsuo Kawai (left) and Dr Leonardo Riella (right)
A kidney transplanted from a pig has worked inside a patient for 271 days – the longest on record, say US doctors.
Tim Andrews said the transplant gave him “hope” and spared him months of needing to go to hospital to have his blood filtered by a dialysis machine.
The team at Mass General Brigham hospital say their work shows pig organs can be used as a “bridge” until a human transplant becomes available.
But the pig organ eventually failed and was removed so Andrews needed a short bout of dialysis before a donor was found.
Doctors and scientists are exploring xenotransplantation – using organs from other species – due to shortages of organs for transplants.
In the US, around 100,000 people are waiting for a kidney while only 25,000 transplants occur each year. More than 7,000 people in the UK are on the kidney transplant list.
Andrews was told it could take seven years to get to the top of the list, but that people live only five years, on average, on dialysis.
“I had a little bit of a shortage of time… it becomes very depressing,” he said.
But he described the idea of a pig transplant as “hope” and the “light at the end of the tunnel”.
“Hope is the biggest thing, the chance to be free from the [dialysis] machine and live your life.”
Pigs are seen as the ideal animal for xenotransplantation. Their organs are roughly the right size and there have been years of experience farming them.
But you cannot just pop down to the farm and take a kidney from a pig and put it into a person. The human body would immediately identify the organ as foreign and launch a devastating immune assault that would destroy the kidney. It would turn black in minutes as holes are ripped in every cell and the organ clots from the inside.
So researchers have developed Yucatan miniature pigs that have gone through 69 genomic modifications to “humanise” their organs.
These modifications strip out some features of pig cells that our immune system spots and attacks; add some human DNA that acts like camouflage netting to help hide the pig tissue from the immune system and further tweaks disable viruses that hide inside pig DNA to prevent infection.
Andrews had end stage kidney disease as a result of type 2 diabetes and his kidney’s were failing.
He was 66 years old when he had the xenotransplant on January 25, 2025.
The transplanted pig kidney worked immediately, according to details just published in the Lancet medical journal.
The kidney continued to function for 271 days until it was removed in October that year. Tim then needed dialysis for 82 days until he had an organ from a donor in January of this year. That organ has been working well.
Argentina’s president has heightened tensions with the UK over the Falkland Islands, warning he will impose economic sanctions on firms which exploit oil close to the British overseas territory.
In a national address, Javier Milei said the “winds of change” favoured Argentina’s claim to the islands, emboldened by signs the US might reconsider its stance of neutrality on the issue.
Milei said the Sea Lion oilfield, where a British and an Israeli firm are due to begin exploration work, was a “clear and present danger”.
In a statement on Friday, Downing Street said it was “clear that the Falkland Islanders’ right of self-determination extends to the right to exploit their own natural resources.”
More than 40 years after the war over the territory, sovereignty of the archipelago in the south-west Atlantic Ocean remains hotly disputed between Britain and Argentina.
Milei announced his sanctions plan surrounded by his cabinet at the presidential palace, reiterating that the Falklands were “historically and legally” Argentinean.
It is not yet clear how or to what extent the sanctions will be imposed or tightened. In Argentina, a current law already allows for restrictions of activities of oil companies participating in projects considered unauthorised on the islands.
On Friday, Downing Street said the UK’s position was “long standing and unwavering”.
“The Falkland Islands are a British Overseas Territory and will remain so for as long as the Islanders wish. The right of the Falkland Islanders to self-determination is paramount and is firmly grounded in international law,” it said.
“This is not the first time Argentine governments have made economic threats against the islanders. We are clear that the Falkland Islanders’ right of self-determination extends to the right to exploit their own natural resources.”
Teslyn Barkman, a former member of the Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly, told the BBC that Milei’s speech had “probably irked every single Falkland islander”.
Speaking from the capital Stanley, she added that “we have a burgeoning economy for a small place… we will remain forever British”.
The crux was a proposal to introduce a bill to parliament to impose sanctions on energy firms planning to begin oil exploration off the Falklands.
The Sea Lion oilfield, around 130 miles from the islands, contains an estimated 1.7 billion barrels of oil.
Two oil companies – Britain’s Rockhopper Exploration and Israel’s Navitas Petroleum – are due to begin extracting oil in the Sea Lion oilfield off the Falklands coast within two years, something Milei said Argentina could not allow.
Rockhopper has described the field as containing “highly marketable crude”.
In a video posted earlier this year, Navitas highlighted the work it is already carrying out in the Falklands including building a dock, a heliport and accommodation for oil workers.
The BBC has contacted the two companies for responses to Milei’s latest comments.
“If we do not act swiftly in a few months, they will have the material capacity to access the oil that lies underneath our sea – something that has never happened before,” Milei said.
In a 2013 referendum, residents of the islands voted overwhelmingly to remain a British overseas territory – with 99.8% voting in favour and just three voting against.
There is both a domestic and a regional political dimension to this latest escalation on the Falklands.
At home, Milei needs to shore up votes amid his plummeting popularity, currently languishing at around 34%. There is only a year to go before he faces a presidential election and a serious challenge from his erstwhile vice-president, Victoria Villarruel.
A pro-military politician, she has criticised his diplomatic efforts to secure change on the question of Falklands sovereignty. The sanctions may be part of a wider attempt to stave off accusations that he’s weak on an issue which is so fundamental to Argentine identity.
It helps Milei that this is about something concrete – the impending oil exploration of an oilfield rather than broad questions of sovereignty and self-determination. He argues that the UK is acting in violation of a UN resolution urging the two sides not to take unilateral action while the dispute remains unresolved.
Milei also announced plans for a naval base in Tierra del Fuego in the south of Argentina, saying Trump and the US were “assessing their historical position in regard to the Falklands”, which Argentina refers to as Las Malvinas.
“That is not empty words as they understand that Argentina is a reliable partner and a valuable ally for decades to come,” he said, describing the UK as a nation “in decline”.
“There are winds of change in the world that are favourable to our claim,” Milei added.
When asked in an interview with GB News earlier on Thursday if the US would “come to the UK’s aid” during a potential territorial dispute, Trump replied that Britain had “not been there to help me” with his country’s war with Iran.
The former prime minister says her decision is driven by a desire to “stand beside” the people of Bangladesh during what she describes as one of the nation’s most difficult periods
Former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina has said she intends to return to Bangladesh by December. (Photo: AP)
Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina says she intends to return to Bangladesh around December and is prepared to face the courts, despite being sentenced to death in one of the cases against her. In an exclusive conversation with News18 India, Hasina says her decision is driven by a desire to “stand beside” the people of Bangladesh during what she describes as one of the country’s most difficult periods. She insists that she is ready to face the law, but says any trial must be impartial and cannot be based on a predetermined verdict.
Speaking about her nearly two years outside Bangladesh, the former prime minister accuses the authorities of political persecution against Awami League leaders, workers and supporters and rejects any suggestion of a backchannel understanding with the current government or the BNP. Hasina also talks about the future of the banned Awami League, her concerns over the death sentence, the circumstances surrounding the July-August 2024 violence, and the role she expects India and the international community to play. She says her possible return is not about reclaiming power, but about defending what she calls the democratic and political rights of her supporters and allowing the people of Bangladesh to decide the country’s future.
Edited Excerpts:
You and senior leaders of the Awami League are expected to return to Bangladesh around December and voluntarily surrender before the court. Have you taken a final decision on this?
Bangladesh is my country. I have spent my entire political life with the people of Bangladesh. I have faced imprisonment, persecution, assassination attempts and repeated threats. I did not enter politics to remain outside my country when my people are passing through one of the most difficult periods in our history.
That is why I intend to return. I want to stand beside my people in this grave situation. I am prepared to face the courts and defend myself. But justice cannot mean a predetermined verdict.
If your decision is final, what will the process look like? Will senior Awami League leaders return first, will you lead the return yourself, or will all of you return together?
Since August 2024, Awami League leaders, activists and ordinary supporters have faced arrests, false cases, dismissal from employment, attacks, intimidation and violence. Many were forced to leave their homes. Many were forced to leave the country. They are not criminals; they are victims of political persecution. Who returns first, or whether leaders return together or in stages, is a practical and organisational question. That will be decided responsibly.
But the political principle is clear: We will not abandon Bangladesh. We will not abandon our people. We will not abandon the democratic struggle. The Awami League will return to the people because our politics belongs to the people.
What is the primary reason behind your decision to return to Bangladesh despite the legal and political challenges you currently face?
The reason is simple: Bangladesh is my homeland. My father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, gave his life for the people of Bangladesh. My mother, my brothers and most of my family were killed on the soil of Bangladesh. I have spent my entire political life serving that country. My roots are there. My people are there. My duty is there.
Millions of Awami League supporters and ordinary citizens are being treated as if they have no legitimate place in their own country. I cannot remain outside Bangladesh while my people face fear, exclusion and persecution. My return is not about power. It is about responsibility. It is about standing beside the people, facing the law and allowing the people of Bangladesh to judge me.
During my tenure, I did everything I could for the betterment of Bangladesh and its people. The welfare of ordinary people was always the purpose of my politics. We used long-term planning, disciplined implementation and sound financial management to place Bangladesh on a strong foundation.
We built major national projects, including the Padma Bridge, Metro Rail, Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, Matarbari Deep Sea Port, Karnaphuli Tunnel, Bangabandhu Satellite, expressways, roads, bridges, ports, economic zones and digital infrastructure. We brought electricity to every citizen. We expanded community clinics so that rural and marginalised people could receive free healthcare and medicine near their homes. We strengthened social safety nets, provided homes and livelihood support to landless families, expanded education, supported women’s empowerment and gave Bangladesh a new standing in the world.
The economy grew from about 70 billion dollars to about 450 billion dollars. Per capita income rose from 482 dollars to 2,784 dollars. Poverty fell from 41 per cent to 18.7 per cent. Extreme poverty fell from 25.1 per cent to 5.6 per cent. Power generation capacity rose from 3,782 megawatts to more than 28,000 megawatts. Maternal and child mortality fell, access to safe drinking water and sanitation expanded, and life expectancy rose from 59 years to 73 years.
Look at what has happened after August 2024. Between June 2024 and June 2026, GDP growth fell from 6.22 per cent to 3.14 per cent. The investment-to-GDP ratio fell from 39.70 per cent to 9.93 per cent. Non-performing loans rose from 10.56 per cent to 48.26 per cent. Poverty increased from 18.5 per cent to 29.9 per cent. Extreme poverty rose from 5.3 per cent to 17.7 per cent. Unemployment rose from 3.35 per cent to 8.66 per cent. In two years, 857 factories were permanently closed, and nearly 1,92,000 people directly lost their jobs.
Since August 5, 2024, peace, security, development and people’s rights have been seriously disrupted. That is why I want to return. My return is part of the struggle to restore the rights of the people.
You have publicly expressed fears that your life could be in danger if you return. Given those concerns, why have you still chosen to go back?
Fear cannot decide my duty. There have been 19 attempts on my life. My family was murdered. I survived the August 21, 2004, grenade attack, where the intention was to kill me and destroy the Awami League leadership. Twenty-four people were killed and hundreds were injured.
I have faced imprisonment, military rule, political persecution and repeated threats. So, I understand the risk. But personal safety cannot be the only consideration in political life. I would rather return to my country and face whatever comes than live away from my people.
You have been sentenced to death in one of the cases against you. Are you concerned that the current authorities may seek to carry out that sentence once you return?
I am not concerned about my life. I have faced death many times. What concerns me is the destruction of justice. What concerns me is the use of courts, laws and institutions for political revenge.
A death sentence imposed through a politically motivated process cannot be treated as the final word on truth. I was not given a genuine opportunity to defend myself through a normal, impartial and credible judicial process. A verdict reached without full participation of the accused, without proper defence and under political pressure is not justice.
The law now being used against me was created during my tenure to bring justice for the victims of the 1971 Liberation War atrocities. If the authorities truly believe in justice, they should allow an open, independent and credible process.
Let me appear before the court. Let me present evidence. Let my lawyers defend me. Let witnesses be cross-examined. Let the evidence speak.
Has there been any backchannel communication between you or senior Awami League leaders and the current government, or with the BNP, regarding the possibility and terms of your return?
My decision to return is my own, and it is a matter of political discussion within my party. I have no political understanding with the Dhaka government. Those who banned the Awami League, filed thousands of cases against our leaders, and turned the judiciary into a weapon of political revenge cannot be partners in any secret arrangement.
My position is clear: I want to return to the people of Bangladesh because they are living under fear, repression, economic uncertainty and political disenfranchisement. My duty is to stand beside them.
Will you return unconditionally, or do you expect certain assurances from the Bangladeshi government, such as due process, security, or a fair trial?
I expect only what the Constitution and law should guarantee to every citizen: personal security, access to lawyers, the right to defend myself, an impartial judiciary, transparent proceedings and a fair hearing.
Those are not political conditions. They are basic requirements of the rule of law.
If the government says, “Come back and face justice,” then I say, “I am prepared to come back.” But justice must mean justice, not predetermined punishment.
Have you shared your return plan with the government of India? If so, what has been India’s response, especially in light of Bangladesh’s request for your extradition?
India is a sovereign country, and I will not speak on behalf of the Indian government. My understanding is that India is treating the extradition question as a legal matter, through its own legal and judicial procedures. That is for India to handle.
I have always valued India’s friendship with Bangladesh. But my decision to return to Bangladesh is my own political and moral decision. India is a friend, but Bangladesh is my homeland. I cannot remain outside my country indefinitely.
The Awami League remains banned in Bangladesh. In such circumstances, what future do you envision for your party, and how do you see it participating in the country’s political process?
The Awami League does not exist only in an office or on paper. It has roots in every corner of Bangladesh. It led the struggle for independence. It shaped the Constitution. It rebuilt the country after war. It has governed Bangladesh, developed Bangladesh and served millions of people across generations.
It has supporters in every village, every town, every profession and every section of society. Even in this difficult time, despite bans, arrests, intimidation and violence, Awami League leaders and workers are raising their voices for the people. They are protesting, as much as they can, against repression, extremism, distortion of history, attacks on the Liberation War spirit and anti-state conspiracies that threaten Bangladesh’s future.
You can ban an organisation administratively, but you cannot erase the beliefs of millions of citizens by decree. Our objective is to restore the democratic rights of Awami League supporters: to organise, speak, campaign and participate in elections.
If the government believes the people have rejected the Awami League, then let the people decide. Lift the ban. Stop persecution. Allow people to choose which person or party they want. Defeat us at the ballot box if you can. That is democracy.
You have described the verdicts of the International Crimes Tribunal as politically motivated. Would you seek a fresh, independent and impartial trial if you return? What specific legal or judicial assurances would you want?
Yes. I would welcome an independent and impartial judicial process. I must be allowed to appear personally before the court, have competent legal representation, examine and challenge the evidence, cross-examine witnesses where legally appropriate, access relevant documents, receive equal treatment between prosecution and defence, have transparent proceedings, and exercise the right to appeal according to law. That is due process.
I also want to remind people that when the violence began in July 2024, I formed a Judicial Inquiry Commission on July 18 to investigate every death, every bullet fired and every act of violence. I later expanded that commission. If I wanted to hide the truth, why would I create and strengthen a judicial inquiry while still in office?
After August 5, the illegal interim regime led by Muhammad Yunus stopped that judicial inquiry. He did not allow the truth to come out. They gave indemnity to those involved in the violence. In many cases, proper forensic truth, post-mortem evidence and documentary examination were not allowed to proceed. That tells its own story. Those who truly want justice do not stop an inquiry. They do not bury evidence. They do not give immunity to those responsible for killing, arson and violence.
The principle is simple: if you believe in justice, allow the accused to stand before the court and defend themselves. Allow the evidence to be examined. Allow witnesses to be cross-examined. A process that silences the accused, stops inquiry and gives indemnity is not justice. It is political revenge dressed up as law.
Asked whether the conflict would be over by the time of the US midterm elections, Vance said he would not describe the situation as a war.
US Vice President JD Vance. (File photo)
US Vice President JD Vance on Thursday refused to describe the fighting between the United States and Iran as a “war” and said he could not say when the conflict would end, as hostilities entered their seventh month with the US midterm elections approaching.
Washington and Tehran traded attacks this week following a period of relative calm. Diplomatic discussions aimed at ending the conflict are not currently taking place between the two countries.
The prolonged fighting has affected President Donald Trump’s approval ratings and pushed gas prices higher, increasing pressure on Republican candidates seeking to retain their party’s narrow majorities in Congress in November.
During a White House briefing, Vance highlighted US efforts to facilitate oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has disrupted maritime traffic in the waterway since the conflict began. Vance credited US action with helping prevent a wider global energy crisis.
‘No Active Shooting’
Asked whether the conflict would be over by the time of the US midterm elections, Vance said he would not describe the situation as a war. He said the administration’s immediate priority was preventing Tehran from continuing to interfere with commercial oil shipments.
“I wouldn’t call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting. There have been places where this has flared up,” Vance said.
More than 50,000 US troops remain stationed across the Middle East, while the Trump administration has increased its military presence in the region. Nearly 20 warships have been deployed as part of a blockade-focused effort. Some troops have remained in the region longer than anticipated after being moved from Europe and the Indo-Pacific.
Pressed several times on when the conflict would end, Vance linked its conclusion to Iran stopping attacks on commercial vessels.
“When will the Iranians stop shooting at ships? I think the reality is I don’t know the answer to that question,” he said.
He also ruled out negotiations while Tehran continues to target commercial shipping.
According to the officials, the two men were identified as a mechanical foreman and a mechanical supervisor.
https://udayavani.com/
Two workers were rescued alive from the Trishul 3A tunnel in Nepal, nine days after a flash flood hit the country on August 26, trapping hundreds of workers inside. The rescuers have established communication with the others who remain trapped inside.
Sharing the update on Friday, Nepal Army Brigadier General Raja Ram Basnet said the two men, who were trapped after the devastating flood in the Bhotekoshi River in Rasuwa on 10 Bhadra, were rescued by a joint search team. The army official said further search and rescue operations were underway.
Nepalese lawmaker Shri Ram Neupane shared the update about a second rescue on his Facebook page soon after army spokesperson Basnet informed about the first worker being pulled out alive.
According to the officials, the two men were identified as Sanjay Shah and Kabir Maharjan. Of these, one is a mechanical foreman and a mechanical supervisor. Both men were placed under medical observation.
Visuals from the site showed the rescued worker, covered in mud, being carried on a rescuer’s shoulder.
557 missing from Nepal’s hydropower project
As many as 557 workers, who were working on the Trishuli 3A hydropower project, remain missing, according to the Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal. Of these, 115 are believed to be trapped inside the main tunnel along the Trishuli River.
The search and rescue operations continue as rescuers believe some people may still be alive inside the tunnel.
If the new law is implemented, the proposal would require all parents or legal guardians to provide proof of their citizenship or evidence of their immigration status when submitting a passport application for their children.
Limiting birthright citizenship has been one of Trump’s top priorities
The Donald Trump administration is planning to ask parents in the United States to prove their own citizenship or immigration status before applying for passports for their children as part of President Donald Trump’s latest effort to limit birthright citizenship, according to a Reuters report.
The US State Department proposal marks Team Trump’s first detailed framework for implementing the Republican president’s August 6 executive order targeting what it calls “birth tourism” and broadening historical exceptions to birthright citizenship.
“President Trump has been unequivocal that this Administration will protect the meaning and value of American citizenship, full stop, and that includes making sure our passport adjudication process fully reflects that standard,” the State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement to Reuters.
What’s the New Proposal?
The existing US passport rule requires parents, who are applying for passports of their US-born children, to establish their relationship with the minor and provide government-issued photo identification.
Even in the current structure, parents are asked to declare their citizenship status on application forms, but they are not routinely required to submit documents proving their immigration status.
The State Department’s draft guidance proposed to change this process. Under the new rule, “the Department will require parental information and evidence of parental citizenship or immigration status as part of its determination whether the applicant is subject to EO 14418,” the State Department draft guidance read, citing the executive order number.
If the new law is implemented, the proposal would require all parents or legal guardians to provide proof of their citizenship, such as a valid US passport or birth certificate, or evidence of their immigration status, such as an I-94 form or a legal permanent residency card, when submitting a passport application for their children.
The information would be used by the government to determine if the child qualifies for citizenship under the new order, the State Department proposal said.
The Goal
According to the Reuters report, the new directive would withhold citizenship from children with a parent who works for a foreign government in the US, is engaged in fraud or a commercial transaction to obtain citizenship, or is classified as an “alien enemy.”
The proposed passport rules come amid an ongoing legal battle over Trump’s efforts to restrict birthright citizenship. Lawyers pursuing class-action lawsuits on behalf of babies who would be deprived of citizenship under Trump’s initial order have asked two different federal judges to prevent his latest order from taking effect.
One of those lawsuits is before US District Judge Deborah Boardman, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden.
At a hearing on Friday in Greenbelt, Maryland, Boardman voiced skepticism about what she called Trump’s unprecedented order and allowed the plaintiffs to revise their lawsuit so she could consider whether to block it.
Justice Department attorneys have argued that a restraining order would be inappropriate and that the legal challenge was premature, as federal agencies had yet to issue public guidance on how the president’s directive would be implemented.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters on Wednesday that schools would halt the current use of about 40 educational tools in New York City classrooms.
Students need to develop skills alongside their peers, Zohran Mamdani told while imposing ban on AI.
New York City officials announced a one-year moratorium on students using artificial intelligence in public elementary and middle schools, the latest step by public officials to set guidelines around new technology in the classroom.
The move by the nation’s largest school district is the most restrictive to date across the US, though other districts, including Los Angeles, have said they are reviewing AI policies.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters on Wednesday that schools would halt the current use of about 40 educational tools in New York City classrooms.
“Children need teachers and human connection in order to learn and grow. They need to develop skills alongside their peers, build relationships with educators and wrestle with tough problems on their own,” Mamdani said at a press conference.
Multiple people were shot Wednesday, including two police officers in the northern US city of Minneapolis, officials said.
Seven patients were brought to a nearby hospital, according to Hennepin Healthcare Medical Center.
Two people were killed and the suspect is dead after a shooting in a downtown Minneapolis apartment building Wednesday afternoon, according to police.
Three Minneapolis police officers were also injured, police Sgt. Garrett Parten said at a press conference on Wednesday evening. Two of the officers were injured from gunshot wounds. All three officers are in stable condition, according to a hospital spokesperson.
One of the victims was fatally shot at the scene, and one died after arriving at Hennepin County Medical Center, he said.
The Minneapolis Police Department warned the public to stay away from the area and said two police officers were among those wounded.
Seven patients were brought to a nearby hospital, according to Hennepin Healthcare Medical Center.
Video posted to social media showed police aiming rifles upward at an apartment tower near the Minneapolis Convention Center. Officials warned residents to avoid the densely populated Loring Park neighborhood nearby.
No additional information was immediately released about the conditions of those wounded.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in a post on social media that state officials are on the ground helping local law enforcement respond to the shooting.
“Grateful to law enforcement actively working to ensure the safety of our neighbors in Downtown Minneapolis this afternoon,” Walz said. “Minnesota is praying for our first responders.”
Nepal Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal asserted that post-disaster aid should be treated as a matter of “moral liability”.
Khanal said Nepal is shifting its diplomatic framework from “aid” to “justice and compensation”.
Nepal is seeking climate-linked “justice” from “large nations” for deadly flash floods in the Bhotkoshi River that swept away villages across at least three districts in the country a week ago. So far, emergency teams have recovered more than 1,100 bodies, but nearly 4,500 people remain missing after the gigantic wave of freezing water, rocks, and debris triggered by a high-altitude glacial collapse roared down the Tibet-Nepal border last week.
Launching a diplomatic pitch to seek international monetary assistance, Nepal Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal asserted that post-disaster aid should be treated as a matter of “moral liability”.
The minister said in Nepali during an interview with Kantipur TV, the excerpts of which were published by The Kathmandu Post newspaper and news agency PTI.
Nepal Asks for Accountability
He pointed out that despite contributing “virtually negligible” greenhouse gas emissions, Nepal is bearing the disproportionate consequences of global warming, including rapid glacier melt and extreme mountain disasters.
“We are paying the ultimate price for a global crisis we did not create. The rapid melting of glaciers and these catastrophic mountain tsunamis are direct consequences of global climate change,” he said, per excerpts of his interview published by PTI.
Khanal said Nepal is shifting its diplomatic framework from “aid” to “justice”.
“This is not a matter to be limited merely to relief or rehabilitation assistance. The role of the world’s large and wealthy nations in climate change is significant, whereas ours is extremely minimal. Yet, we are paying a heavy price,” he said.
“We will turn this into an issue of justice in the international arena. We will raise our voices with our heads held high. This is not about asking for aid; it is about the obligation of large nations. We will seriously raise this issue in international forums.”
The Culprits
Khanal said Kathmandu plans to raise the issue of climate change “with absolute firmness and clarity” at international forums. He said the country will also seek compensation from major emitters for climate-related losses suffered by vulnerable countries.
“This is a matter of civilisational survival. If our Himalayan glaciers disappear, the water security of over two billion people in South Asia dependent on rivers like the Ganges and the Trishuli will be permanently compromised. We are advocating not just for Nepal, but for the survival of South Asian civilisation,” he said.
The minister said Nepal’s finance ministry has officially dispatched a formal climate compensation claim letter to its international partners.
“If our Himalayan glaciers disappear, the water security of over two billion people in South Asia — dependent on rivers like the Ganges and the Trishuli — will be permanently compromised. We are advocating not just for Nepal but for the survival of South Asian civilisation,” he added.
India’s Stand
India has repeatedly emphasised climate equity and highlighted its relatively low per capita emissions. New Delhi argues that climate obligations should take into account differences in countries’ historical emissions, development needs, and capacities.
New Delhi has supported efforts to address loss and damage suffered by vulnerable developing countries and maintains that Western nations, which industrialised first, occupy the majority of the global carbon budget.
It also maintains that developed countries should provide the necessary financial resources to help such nations deal with climate impacts.
Ursula von der Leyen and Mark Rutte accused Russia of becoming increasingly reckless in its attacks on Europe
The heads of Nato and the European Commission have warned Russia is growing increasingly reckless and vowed to respond to a “new normal”.
“Leipzig marks a new escalation on European Union soil directly attributed to Russia,” said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a day after Germany blamed Russia for a failed drone attack on Leipzig airport.
Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said the alliance, which includes the US, stood “in full solidarity with Germany”.
Russia rejects accusations it targeted a Ukrainian cargo plane on 4 August with an explosives-laden drone.
It has responded to new German sanctions by saying it will close Germany’s Goethe-Institut cultural centres in Russia.
The drone was defused by a robot at Leipzig/Halle airport and a second drone is thought to have collided with another cargo plane.
A third drone was reportedly found 10 days later at the airport, which is an important Nato hub and is regularly used by Ukrainian Antonov transport aircraft.
It was not until Tuesday that the German government said police investigations and intelligence finding had proved that Russia was behind the incidents.
The interior minister said that the drone’s configuration, components, explosives and detonator were all known from other Russian hybrid operations.
Two suspects have reportedly been identified in the Leipzig attack, including a Belarusian with a Russian passport who entered on a tourist visa, and another with Latvian and Russian passports who arrived by plane in Berlin and flew out two days before the failed attack.
Berlin has said it will close the Russian consulate in Bonn as well as the Russian House cultural institution, widely suspected in Berlin of acting as a propaganda outlet for the Kremlin.
The Russian foreign ministry said Berlin had offered no evidence to back its claims.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that Germany’s Goethe-Institut cultural centres in Moscow, St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg would close in response to Berlin’s actions.
Earlier, Germany’s chargé d’affaires Bernd Finke was summoned to hear Moscow’s rejection of Berlin’s “entirely unfounded accusations”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned Germany’s measures as a serious mistake that “clearly runs counter to the interests of the German people”.
Asked whether Moscow would be prepared to sever relations with Berlin, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko answered “maybe”, but said for now it was giving diplomacy a chance.
Critics in Germany suggested the German response was relatively weak, but Berlin has its eye on a more co-ordinated response with its allies, including extended EU sanctions and entry restrictions on Russian visitors across the bloc.
Von der Leyen was clear in her statement that the Leipzig attack had involved “military-grade material carried out by Russian operatives on European Union soil”.
“We will not tolerate it,” she said. “We have to step up and that means being ready to respond to Russia’s recklessness faster and better.”
While she was meeting Rutte in Brussels, EU foreign ministers had gathered at Wicklow in Ireland, where France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said action could be taken on a European level against Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of ships carrying oil and other cargo aimed at avoiding EU sanctions.
Barrot and fellow ministers from Belgium and the Netherlands said they had summoned Russian ambassadors in protest at the attack.
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said it was obvious that Russia saw no political cost in its hybrid operations against European allies.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said they were working on how to tighten enforcement of existing sanctions, and added there was broad support for an EU visa entry ban on Russian ex-combatants as well as stricter visa limits on Russian tourists.
Several EU countries, including Sweden, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain, are pushing for more than €193bn (£165bn) in frozen Russian assets to be used to help Ukraine. The idea was first planned at the end of 2025, and rejected by Belgium where the money is held. However, Belgium’s position is unchanged because it fears being held financially liable by the courts.
The Leipzig attack was part of a broader pattern of increasingly dangerous incidents, including drones and interference with critical infrastructure, von der Leyen said.
Mark Rutte added there had been increased risk to Europeans from drones and missiles crossing into countries on the Alliance’s eastern flank, and there had been more “malign activities targeting our territory directly, whether it is fires set in factories producing defence equipment for Ukraine or indeed the Russian hybrid attack in Leipzig”.
Several acts of suspected sabotage have been reported in Germany in the past 24 hours alone, including two attacks on electricity substations, one in the east and one in the west near Cologne.
Although authorities do not yet know who was behind the incidents, North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul said an attack that targeted power lines at Bergheim in western Germany was deliberate and whoever had carried out was attacking the country as a whole.
“We are investigating two possibilities: sabotage directed by a foreign state and left-wing extremism,” he said.
Several power lines failed prompting five power plant units to go offline at two separate coal-fired power stations. Police said six launching devices had been found in a field.
The Strait of Hormuz has effectively been closed since the start of the war in Iran (file photo)
Saudi Arabia has condemned what it said was an Iranian attack on a Saudi-owned supertanker on Monday night that killed two Filipino sailors.
The Saudi national shipping company, Bahri, confirmed on Wednesday that its vessel Sidr was “involved in a security incident while transiting the Strait of Hormuz”.
Sidr was hit by projectiles north of Oman’s Musandam Peninsula, according to maritime security firms. A South Korean-owned supertanker, Senegal Prosperity, was reportedly struck east of Musandam around the same time.
Iran has not responded to the Saudi allegation. But it said earlier that two tankers had caught fire after hitting mines while using an unauthorised route through the strait.
The news of the sailors’ deaths came after the US military carried out a wave of air strikes on Iran and Iranian forces targeted US bases in neighbouring Arab states with missiles and drones in their biggest exchange of fire since July.
On Wednesday Iran’s health minister said 18 people were killed and 108 injured in the US attacks. Iran has accused the US of a “war crime” over a strike that killed four people including two children at a wedding party in the southern city of Sirik. The US military said it was looking into the reports.
Shipping company Bahri’s statement said the unspecified “security incident” affecting Sidr happened in the Strait of Hormuz at around 23:40 local time (19:40 GMT) on Monday.
“It is with profound sadness that Bahri confirms the loss of two of its Filipino seafarers as a result of the incident,” it added. “The company extends its deepest condolences and heartfelt sympathies to their families, loved ones, and colleagues during this difficult time.”
Later, the Saudi foreign ministry expressed the kingdom’s condemnation of “Iran’s targeting of the Saudi tanker (Sidr) while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz”.
It also condemned the recent Iranian attacks on Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait, and stressed the “need to halt escalation and respect the security and safety of international navigation”, as well as the security of global energy supplies, national sovereignty, and international law.
The statements were issued a day after maritime risk management and intelligence firms Marisks and Kpler reported that two tankers each loaded with two million barrels of Saudi crude oil were struck by unknown projectiles within minutes of each other as they transited outbound through the Strait of Hormuz late on Monday.
Sidr was struck by “unknown projectiles” at 19:52 GMT about 16 nautical miles (30km) north-east of Khasab, Oman, while Senegal Prosperity was struck by “three unknown projectiles” about 17 nautical miles east of Khasab, according to Marisks.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency also reported two incidents in the same locations.
On Wednesday, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps said in a statement that two oil tankers sought “at the urging of the US military to transit via an illegal route” in the Strait of Hormuz before “striking mines and exploding”. The vessels were “currently on fire”, it added.
The US military has not commented, but it said the latest strikes on Iran followed “recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members”.
The Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil and gas shipments usually pass, has effectively been closed since the start of the US and Israel’s war with Iran in February due to Iranian missile and drone attacks on commercial vessels and a US blockade of Iranian ports.
A ball of fire erupts from one of the towers of New York’s World Trade Center as a hijacked airliner is deliberately crashed into it, September 11, 2001. REUTERS
Tragic day is still fresh
9/11. I beg everyone’s pardon. My tears are wetting my reporting.
I love the United States of America. I love New York, or what it used to be.
We’re approaching 9/11. I remember that day exactly. I was awake. In bed. Reading newspapers which get delivered to me early every morning. Phone rang. A friend screaming. Asking did I have TV on.
I didn’t. Then I never shut it off. The subsequent sounds did not stop.
On my Manhattan avenue traffic was removed. Empty. No cars, no trucks, no vehicles, no people, nothing. Sirens. From closed curtained locked windows could be seen — and heard — only emergency vehicles. Ambulances. Fire trucks. Police cars. Official vehicles. No private transportation. Emergency equipment. Hands to help. Medics.
Dr. Robert Lahita, author and VIP in New Jersey’s medical team, ran his side’s lifesaving triage unit 24 hours nonstop.
America invaded? New York City attacked? By haters? Mongrels?
All night long. The sound of motor vehicles speeding past. Always heading uptown. As one hospital filled up, it was onto the next.
And — 25 years later — can we believe THEY are done? Over? Finished?
No. Never.
Celebs have normal issues, too
Björk: “Iceland wanted to give me an island but I didn’t want it. I was going to buy myself a small island to get privacy. In Iceland tourists poke me with their finger like they’ve just bought a trip to Disneyland. That’s why it’s great to be in New York. Nobody here gives a f - - k.”
Claire Danes: “I’ve been living in Santa Monica. My brother’s in New York. I miss him. Suddenly I’m at the center of everything. That’s really unhealthy. I always wanted to be an only child but he’s smarter, cooler. He still has this power whenever I’m around. Also he’s 6-foot-5.”
THE jury in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial has been sent home after failing to come to a unanimous decision for a second time after five days of deliberations.
Jurors said on Wednesday afternoon they still could not decide Clancy’s fate after 28 hours of deliberating, prompting Judge William Sullivan to make a last resort attempt at getting a verdict.
Lindsay Clancy is on trial after she strangled her three children to death in January 2023Credit: via REUTERS
After continuing talks on Wednesday to weigh the five options in Clancy’s case, the nine women and three men sent a note to the judge saying they still had not come to a verdict.
Sullivan read the so-called “Tuey-Rodriguez” or the “dynamite charge,” that encourages them to continue deliberations to reach a unanimous decision.
The 12 jurors had previously said they were deadlocked on Tuesday, but they were sent back to deliberate for several more hours before they asked to be sent home.
Clancy remained transfixed on the jury with her eyebrows furrowed as Sullivan spoke to jurors on Wednesday afternoon.
The U.S. Sun was in the courtroom as the dynamite charge was read out, jurors appeared tired but did not have any reaction to it being read out.
One juror could be seen wiping their eyes repeatedly while a majority of them seemed wiped out.
As the courtroom was being cleared, defense attorney Kevin Reddington’s son went over to Clancy and stood directly in front of her and they appeared to be chatting as he was reassuring her.
Sullivan gave the jurors another round of instructions, reading, “Our constitution and laws provide that in a criminal case the principal
way for deciding questions of fact is by the verdict of a jury …
“The verdict to which a juror agrees must of course be his or her
own verdict, the result of their own convictions, and not merely an
acquiescence in the conclusion of the other jurors …
“There is no reason to suppose that the case will ever be submitted to 12 persons more intelligent, more impartial or more competent to decide it or that more or clear evidence will be produced.
“And with this in mind, it’s your duty to decide the case if you can do it conscientiously.”
Jurors were ordered back to the deliberation room after the order was read and then were dismissed shortly after 4pm on Wednesday.
They will return on Thursday morning at 9am for a sixth day of deliberating.
Sullivan reminded jurors that in Clancy’s case, the burden of proof is on the prosecution, and that if they are left in “doubt of any element of the crime, the defendant is entitled to the benefit of the doubt and must be acquitted.”
A judge is usually not allowed to ask a jury to go back and deliberate more than twice, according to the Fully Informed Jury Association.
“If a verdict still cannot be delivered, at some point the judge will declare a mistrial due to the hung jury,” the jury association said.
Jurors do not have a deadline for reaching a verdict and can take all the time they need to review exhibits, which there are 300 of in Clancy’s trial.
Northeastern University law expert Daniel Medwed said the charge is a “kind of a last-ditch effort to break a hung jury.”
While the move is considered controversial and is outlawed in many states “because of their possibly coercive effect,” it has been used in many high-profile cases including in Karen Read’s trial that also took place in Massachusetts.
Body language expert and jury consultant Susan Constantine told LA Magazine reporter Lauren Conlin that she believes jurors may be in different “camps” based on their views of the case.
She speculated some jurors may be driven by emotion after listening to five weeks of grueling testimony, while others may be potentially persuaded by a majority.
If the jury is split closer to 50/50, it would make reaching a unanimous decision more difficult, Constantine added.
If jurors decide Clancy is guilty, they could convict her of first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter.
Otherwise, they could acquit her or find her not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility.
While US forces aim to suppress Iran’s leverage in the region, concerns remain regarding the safety of shipping routes, with energy companies wary of risks and high costs.
US fighter jets have escorted oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
The US military has escorted 40 commercial vessels carrying about 18 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, in what US officials described as a wartime high. The operation took place on Tuesday as the US and Iran exchanged a new round of strikes, according to a report by CNN.
Before the war began more than six months ago, about 20 million barrels of oil a day passed through the strategically important waterway. US forces used air, sea and space assets to protect the vessels while continuing strikes against Iranian capabilities that could threaten commercial shipping in the strait, the officials said.
They also faced waves of drone attacks and neutralised anti-ship cruise missiles during the escort operation, one of the officials said.
The operation is part of a broader US strategy under President Donald Trump aimed at increasing economic pressure on Iran. It includes strikes on Iranian military capabilities around the strait, escorting commercial vessels and maintaining a naval blockade of Iranian ports.
Despite the successful operation, US officials acknowledge that an end to the conflict is not close.
Energy companies remain concerned about the risks of sending vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, even under military escort. Oil prices also remain elevated, contributing to volatility in global bond markets.
US Focuses on Strait of Hormuz
The Trump administration has increasingly focused its military strategy on the Strait of Hormuz, with US Central Command directed to prioritise operations there and prevent oil exports from entering or leaving Iranian ports, according to the first US official.
Other priorities, including operations aimed at eliminating parts of Iran’s nuclear programme, have effectively been “backburnered” for now, the official said.
President Trump has recently suggested that he is willing to leave Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium buried and monitor it using satellite imagery. The material was not completely destroyed during previous US strikes on three key Iranian nuclear facilities.
On Tuesday, US forces struck nearly 60 military targets around the strait, including air defence sites, radar systems, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities and communications facilities, while escorting the commercial vessels, the officials said.
The US military expects to continue carrying out strikes near the waterway because Iran has shown it can rebuild its capabilities, the second official said.
The official described the strategy as “mowing the grass” or a game of “whack-a-mole”, aimed at repeatedly degrading Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping.
US Says Iran’s Leverage is Weakening
The strikes and escort operations form part of a wider effort to reduce Iran’s ability to use the Strait of Hormuz as leverage, US officials said.
The US blockade has prevented Iran from exporting any oil since July, the second official said.
President Trump said on Wednesday that the latest US strikes had targeted more than Iranian radar systems, with the aim of limiting Tehran’s ability to track ships passing through the strait. “They were trying to see the ships,” Trump said from the Oval Office. “They can’t see it because they have no radar, because we blew it up, and we blew up much more than their radar last night.”
He did not specify what other targets had been hit.
Trump again said the US controlled the Strait of Hormuz and had demonstrated that it could strike Iranian positions along the coast while protecting commercial vessels from attacks.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier this week that more than 17 million barrels of oil had passed through the strait on Monday, which he described as a wartime record. “That is not Iranian control of the strait,” Bessent told CNBC.
US officials told CNN they believe the strait is becoming a less effective source of leverage for Iran, pointing to increased shipping volumes as evidence.
Iran, however, is still likely to regard its ability to threaten commercial shipping and disrupt traffic as an important bargaining tool. Shipping companies remain sceptical about whether the US can maintain a sustainable system of escorted transit.
Shippers Remain Wary
Trump administration officials have repeatedly said that more oil is passing through the strait than publicly reported because vessels are increasingly switching off their transponders to avoid detection.
Most, if not all, of the 40 vessels escorted on Tuesday turned off their transponders during the journey, according to the first official.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright also claimed in August that Middle Eastern oil exports had temporarily returned to pre-war levels.
However, shipping companies and industry analysts remain sceptical of claims that the US has achieved “total control” of the Strait of Hormuz. “Safe to say the administration has not covered itself with credibility,” one person familiar with the industry told CNN.
The person added that even if the reported daily increases in shipping were accurate, “I don’t know anyone who thinks the average is that much.”
Commercial shippers are largely deciding whether to use the strait on a case-by-case basis, according to two people familiar with the industry.
The cost of chartering an oil tanker through the waterway has also surged, with some estimates putting it at more than $500,000 a day. That has provided an additional financial incentive for companies prepared to take the risk.
Insurance costs for vessels remain high after rising sharply at the beginning of the war. Reports of Iranian attacks on ships transiting the strait have also continued to deter operators.
Trump made the remarks on Wednesday after the US carried out heavy strikes on targets across Iran, killing at least 18 people.
US President Donald Trump looks on during a meeting with travel industry executives in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AFP photo)
US President Donald Trump said the renewed US military campaign against Iran would not last “too long”, but warned that Washington was ready to launch another attack whenever it chose.
Trump made the remarks on Wednesday after the US carried out heavy strikes on targets across Iran, killing at least 18 people, according to Iranian officials. The latest attacks marked the biggest exchange of fire between the two sides since July.
“We blew up much more than their radar last night. It was a very heavy attack last night, and we’re prepared to do another one any time we want,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office.
Despite the renewed attacks, Trump gave no clear timeline for the campaign. Asked how long the US offensive would continue, he replied: “I don’t think too long.”
Trump Says Iran Weapons Programme Was Hit
Trump said US forces had destroyed new military equipment Iran was trying to build along the Strait of Hormuz.
He claimed Iran was working to restore its radar and missile systems, as well as developing a rocket capable of dropping mines. Trump said the US had destroyed the equipment before it could be used.
“We took out all of the new equipment that they tried to build along the Strait of Hormuz – some defensive, some offensive,” he said.
Trump said the US strikes came after Iran targeted an American base in Jordan.
“We hit them last night because they took a shot at our base in Jordan,” he said. “We hit them hard last night. They gave a little love-tap, but we hit them hard.”
Iran Retaliates Against US Bases
The fresh fighting came after weeks of relative calm. US forces launched strikes near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, saying they were responding to Iranian efforts to lay mines in the key waterway.
Marco Rubio said he doesn’t think India and Iran are discussing a trade deal. He noted many countries talk to Tehran, but warned against helping Iran evade sanctions.
PM Narendra Modi met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Bishkek. (AFP photo and X)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said he did not believe India and Iran were discussing a trade deal, while warning countries against helping Tehran bypass US sanctions.
Rubio made the remarks during an interview on The Brian Kilmeade Show on Fox News Radio, when asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Bishkek.
“Well, I don’t think there’s a trade deal between India and Iran. Obviously, there are – countries all develop their own foreign policy, and many countries around the world talk to the Iranian regime,” Rubio said.
Responding to the suggestion that PM Modi and Pezeshkian appeared to be setting up a trade deal, Rubio added: “I mean, we’ve met with elements of the Iranian regime as well, in terms of some of these discussions that have occurred and there’s been contact with them.”
Rubio Warns Of US Sanctions
Rubio said US President Donald Trump had made Washington’s position clear: countries should not help Iran find ways to evade US sanctions.
“No country should be out there helping them create mechanisms by which they can generate revenue that they will then use to sponsor terrorism and try to build a nuclear weapon,” Rubio said.
“And if countries decide to do that, then we’re going to have to sanction them too,” he added.
His comments come as India maintains diplomatic and economic ties with Iran while also engaging with the US amid the wider war in West Asia.
What Happened At Modi-Pezeshkian Meet?
PM Modi met Pezeshkian in Bishkek on Monday for their first bilateral talks since the Iran-US conflict began in February.
During the meeting, Modi said India wanted to “expand and diversify” its trade basket with Iran and reiterated New Delhi’s support for efforts towards lasting peace in West Asia.
The two leaders also discussed the conflict and the need to protect civilians, civilian infrastructure and freedom of navigation.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks during a “fireside chat”, as finance ministers and central bank governors from G20 countries meet in Asheville, North Carolina, U.S., September 1, 2026. REUTERS/Sam Wolfe Purchase Licensing Rights
The Trump administration won backing from all G20 financial leaders except China’s on Tuesday to act against “non-market” policies and distortions that cause over-reliance on exports and hinder growth elsewhere.
The finance ministers’ meeting clearly focused on China, while Washington used a parallel G20 gathering of industry titans and commerce ministers to make the case for a hands-off approach to AI regulation.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he had been proven right when he warned other trading partners last year that tougher U.S. tariffs would lead to an influx of Chinese goods diverted to their markets.
“We believe that non-market-based economies pushing out a never-ending stream of cheap exports is not sustainable,” he told a news conference. “I think that the fact that 19 countries did want to address this shows the sheer the enormity of the problem.”
A G20 chair’s statement to conclude the meeting said the participants, except China’s, agreed that countries should eliminate “non-market policies” that exacerbate imbalances.
“In particular, countries with excessive and persistent external surpluses should remove distortions that constrain domestic consumption and that result in an over-reliance on exports for growth,” the statement said.
The two-day meeting of finance chiefs – which saw differences in tone between the U.S. hosts and some European participants – came amid a global bond market selloff on worries over growing debt levels and inflation pressures.
European countries and Canada expressed dismay that Russia, invited by the forum’s U.S. hosts, attended for the first time since it invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Residents of Pinellas County participate in the Pinellas County Urban League “Souls to the Polls,” an event encouraging African-American community members to vote in the upcoming general election on November 5th, at Williams Park in St. Petersburg, Florida., U.S., November 3, 2024. REUTERS/Octavio Jones Purchase Licensing Rights
After a summer of victories for Democratic Socialists of America-aligned candidates, the movement faces a new test: whether it can win over Black voters, a constituency central to Democrats’ hopes of regaining control of Congress in November at the U.S. Midterm Elections.
Florida state Representative Angie Nixon, who could become the first Black lawmaker elected to represent Florida in the U.S. Senate, may offer part of an answer. She overcame a more than 16-to-1 fundraising disadvantage to defeat retired Lieutenant Colonel Alex Vindman in the Democratic primary contest, running up large margins in Black communities while focusing on affordability and other everyday concerns.
The debate underscores a challenge for DSA-backed candidates seeking to build on their primary successes. While Black voters have long criticized Democrats for paying attention to their communities mainly at election time, activists, strategists and community leaders interviewed by Reuters said some democratic socialists and progressive candidates face a different hurdle: persuading voters they are focused on housing, healthcare and rising living costs rather than ideological issues such as Gaza and defunding the police.
DSA officials say their organizing is centered on economic concerns, from housing costs and food prices to stagnant wages.
DSA-aligned candidates have challenged and in some cases defeated more moderate Democratic rivals in a string of high-profile primaries, intensifying an internal party debate over whether progressive energy can translate into broader voter appeal when Democrats face Republicans in November.
Interviews with more than two dozen activists, strategists and community leaders suggest DSA-backed candidates face an uphill battle with some Black voters in November. Some fear alienation from democratic socialists could threaten turnout among one of Democrats’ most reliable constituencies.
“Many times, Black people feel like the Democratic Party doesn’t come until it’s time to vote,” Nixon told Reuters. “That’s why it’s just really important to organize. And I would say DSA has to do the same thing.”
A U.S. passport featuring an image and signature of U.S. President Donald Trump is seen this rendering released by the State Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 28, 2026. U.S. State Department/Handout via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
The U.S. State Department has proposed requiring parents applying for passports for their children to provide proof of their own citizenship or immigration status as part of President Donald Trump’s latest effort to limit birthright citizenship.
The draft guidance, reviewed by Reuters, is the first detailed look at how the State Department could enforce Trump’s August 6 executive order targeting what it calls “birth tourism” and broadening historical exceptions to birthright citizenship.
The White House referred Reuters questions to the State Department. In a statement, State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said that “President Trump has been unequivocal that this Administration will protect the meaning and value of American citizenship, full stop, and that includes making sure our passport adjudication process fully reflects that standard.”
Limiting birthright citizenship has been one of the president’s top priorities in his far-reaching crackdown on immigration. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled his previous attempt violated the country’s Constitution.
Trump’s initial executive order would have granted automatic U.S. citizenship at birth only to children with at least one parent who was a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident known as a green card holder.
In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court found the order was unlawful, with a majority finding it violated the Citizenship Clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
IMPLEMENTING TRUMP’S ORDER
Trump’s August 6 order was narrower, taking particular aim at “birth tourism,” in which women travel to the United States to give birth so their children can obtain automatic citizenship. That order could still be blocked in court.
The new directive would withhold citizenship from children with a parent who works for a foreign government in the U.S., is engaged in fraud or a commercial transaction to obtain citizenship, or is classified as an “alien enemy.”
“The Department will require parental information and evidence of parental citizenship or immigration status as part of its determination whether the applicant is subject to EO 14418,” the State Department draft guidance reads, citing the executive order number.
People drive near a billboard depicting U.S. President Donald Trump on a building in Tehran, Iran, August 31, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
The U.S. launched a barrage of airstrikes against Iran on Tuesday, prompting Iranian retaliation, in the most serious escalation in weeks in a conflict that has driven up global energy prices and weighed on President Donald Trump’s popularity at home.
The strikes followed a weekend exchange of fire — the first since July — and attacks on Monday on two tankers leaving the Strait of Hormuz, the global oil supply waterway that Iran has effectively closed to shipping. Global oil prices rose more than $4 a barrel on Tuesday, settling at a five-week high.
Tehran struck back at U.S. assets in Jordan, Bahrain and Iraq and remained defiant, warning that it would prevent oil being exported from the Gulf, despite a threat by Trump to hit Iran “hard” and a warning from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that Washington was about to impose new sanctions.
Five people were killed and 50 wounded at a wedding near Sirik, a coastal area on the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranian Red Crescent reported. The Mehr news agency said a 4-year-old child was among those killed, while the IRNA news agency, citing a provincial official, put the number of wounded at 68.
There was no immediate U.S. reaction to the reports.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement the U.S. attacks would “tighten the lock” on the Strait of Hormuz, which carried one of every five barrels of the world’s oil before the war.
“If the enemy wants us not to export oil from the Persian Gulf, no one will be able to export oil,” Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf was quoted as saying by Iranian media.
Neither threats of strikes nor new economic sanctions appear to have materially changed the position of Tehran, which has been under heavy economic sanctions for half a century.
The U.S. strikes followed a month of relative calm in which the U.S. and Iran mostly held their fire while exchanging hostile statements.
The U.S. military’s Central Command said it had completed a wave of strikes against IRGC targets on Tuesday including air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine-laying capabilities, and communications sites.
The renewed push comes at a time when India is looking to urgently strengthen both its air defence architecture and combat aircraft strength
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bishkek on Monday came just days before the two leaders are set to meet again in New Delhi, with Moscow preparing an aggressive new defence pitch centred on two of its most advanced weapon systems: The S-500 Prometheus air defence/anti-ballistic missile system and the Su-57 Felon stealth fighter.
The renewed push comes at a time when India is looking to urgently strengthen both its air defence architecture and combat aircraft strength, even as it continues to diversify military purchases away from its traditional dependence on Russian equipment.
At the centre of Moscow’s pitch is the S-500 Prometheus, Russia’s newest long-range air and missile defence system. Moscow has been positioning the S-500 as a possible next step in the India-Russia air defence partnership, building on the operational success of the S-400 already in Indian service.
S-500 Prometheus
Su-57 Felon
Can confirm that Team Putin is pushing 2 big weapon packages as prestige projects to take India-Russia defence ties to the next level.
The timing is significant. During Operation Sindoor last year, India’s Russian-built S-400 systems were extensively deployed against Pakistani aerial threats.
An S-400 also brought down a Pakistani airborne early warning and control aircraft at an extraordinary record-breaking range, an engagement that has sharply enhanced the system’s reputation within the Indian military.
Russia is now looking to capitalise on that operational experience. A day before the Bishkek handshake with PM Modi, Putin’s government submitted a fresh bid to supply India with 5 additional S-400 squadrons, potentially doubling the number already contracted. The proposal comes even as India begins testing elements of Project Kusha, the indigenous long-range air defence programme intended to eventually provide an Indian alternative in the S-400 class.
🚨BREAKING: Hours before Modi-Putin meet in Bishkek, Russia submitted ₹30k crore bid to supply 5 more regiments of S-400 air defence system to the Indian Air Force. @VishnuNDTV joins me with details: pic.twitter.com/c2Oqg9c5Zx
And that makes the S-500 proposition far more complicated than simply buying a better version of a weapon that has already proved itself.
India already has a homegrown ballistic missile defence programme at a fairly advanced stage of rollout, while Project Kusha is specifically intended to create an indigenous long-range air defence capability.
Any decision on the S-500 will therefore have to be weighed against systems into which India has already invested years of development, money and technological effort. The question will not simply be whether the S-500 is formidable, but whether buying it fills a genuine capability gap or risks overlapping with indigenous programmes approaching maturity.
The second major Russian proposition presents an even more complicated dilemma: the Sukhoi Su-57 Felon.
Russia has intensified its pitch of the fifth-generation stealth fighter as the Indian Air Force grapples with depleted fighter squadron strength and, crucially, the absence of an Indian stealth fighter for years to come. Moscow has indicated that technology transfer, localisation and production in India could form part of any future Su-57 proposition.
But while the IAF has made an official case on considering the Russian offer, describing the Su-57 as a “stopgap” before India’s Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) arrives also highlights the problem it is intended to solve.
One expert view is that buying a foreign stealth fighter would effectively amount to an acknowledgement that Indian defence planning and project management failed to provide the IAF with a credible fifth-generation capability within the required timeframe. The strategic environment has meanwhile raced ahead. China is now believed to operate a fleet of more than 500 J-20 ‘Mighty Dragon’ stealth fighters, while Pakistan is expected to begin receiving Chinese J-35 stealth fighters in the coming months.
In a jet-for-jet dynamic, the IAF therefore faces a genuine capability dilemma: wait for the indigenous AMCA and accept a potentially dangerous stealth gap, or import an interim fifth-generation fighter and accept the costs and consequences that come with it.
Those consequences are substantial. A Su-57 acquisition would add yet another fighter type to what has sometimes been described as the IAF’s “beauty pageant” of combat aircraft. Its frontline inventory already includes the Russian Su-30MKI and MiG-29, French Rafale and Mirage 2000, British-French Jaguar and indigenous Tejas. Each additional type brings its own training, maintenance, weapons, spares and logistics ecosystem.
The biggest irony of all: Russia’s pitch is particularly significant given the history of the abandoned India-Russia Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) project, which was intended to produce an Indian derivative of the aircraft that eventually became the Su-57.
Team Putin’s renewed defence offensive also extends well beyond these two headline systems.
Russia is pushing the Voronezh strategic early-warning radar, a powerful long-range system designed to detect ballistic missile launches and other threats across enormous distances. Extensive upgrade programmes for India’s large Su-30MKI fleet (in partnership with HAL) and its Russian-origin Kilo-class submarines are also part of a wider portfolio of potential cooperation.
For Moscow, there is urgency behind the sales push. India has spent two decades deliberately diversifying its defence suppliers. The most recent reminder: New Delhi just moved forward with the procurement of American Javelin anti-tank guided missiles after a process stretching back roughly 16 years, while a massive additional purchase of 114 Rafale fighters from France is also taking shape.
At the same time, India is investing heavily in indigenous programmes. Russia therefore faces competition not merely from American, French and Israeli defence companies, but increasingly from India’s own expanding military-industrial ecosystem.
Yet Moscow retains an enormous structural advantage. Decades of defence cooperation mean Russian-origin fighters, tanks, submarines, helicopters, missiles and air defence systems remain deeply embedded across the Indian military. Maintaining, upgrading and eventually replacing those platforms creates opportunities that newer suppliers cannot easily replicate.
The 73-year-old cricketer-turned-politician and his wife are currently detained at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, serving lengthy prison sentences in corruption and related cases.
The Adiala jail superintendent was asked to ensure implementation of the court’s directions
A Pakistan court has barred any further solitary confinement for the jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi. The Islamabad High Court (IHC) also directed the Adiala Jail authorities to facilitate a meeting between Khan and his wife per the jail laws.
The 73-year-old cricketer-turned-politician and his wife are currently detained at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, serving lengthy prison sentences in corruption and related cases.
The verdict came after Khan’s sister, Aleema Khan, had approached the court against the alleged solitary confinement of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party founder, while Bushra Bibi’s daughter Mubashara Khawar Maneka filed a petition concerning her.
Pronouncing the verdict, IHC Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro also directed that Khan’s family members be allowed to meet him as permitted under jail rules and ordered authorities to make arrangements for telephone conversations between him and his sons.
The IHC also directed the Adiala jail authorities to provide Khan with newspapers and books daily and ensure that he receives medical facilities in accordance with jail rules.
The Adiala jail superintendent was asked to ensure implementation of the court’s directions and submit a compliance report within 15 days.
Imran Khan’s Time In Jail
Khan has remained in prison since August 2023 following convictions that he and his PTI party have described as politically motivated. His supporters and relatives have repeatedly alleged that authorities have restricted his access to family members and adequate medical care. The government has rejected such allegations.
Bibi was first jailed on January 31, 2024, after her conviction in a corruption-related case, and was released on bail on October 24 that year after nearly nine months in prison.
She was re-arrested on January 17, 2025, following her conviction in another corruption-related case and remains detained at Adiala Jail, having since received additional sentences in corruption-related cases.
Last month, Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered the government to shift Khan to the private-run Shifa International Hospital following months of concerns raised by his family and supporters over his health, particularly an eye condition diagnosed earlier this year.
However, on the night of August 20-21, Khan was admitted to the state-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) for a medical procedure and diagnostic examinations instead of Shifa Hospital. He was subsequently taken back to Adiala Jail.
The photo was taken before a session of the 26th SCO Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and it showed the leaders of the member countries standing together.
The 26th SCO Leadership Summit brought together 10 member states
The office of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in an absurd social media stunt, shared a photo from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit on Tuesday, but cropped the original photo in a manner that cropped other world leaders from it and placed him in the centre of the image.
The photo shared by the Pakistani Prime Minister only showed Chinese President Xi Jinping, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Ularbeek Zarlykovich Sharsheev, a Kyrgyz colonel.
The photo was taken before a session of the 26th SCO Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and it showed the leaders of the member countries standing together.
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in a group photo with heads of States at the SCO Council of Heads of State Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on 1 September 2026. pic.twitter.com/3lsruWHaYV
However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared the original picture and showed that in reality, Sharif was standing fourth from the right, and that five other world leaders had been cropped.
The 26th SCO Leadership Summit brought together 10 member states, 15 partner countries and two observer countries to advance dialogue and cooperation on regional and global issues.
A Bank of America vice president, Erin Piacenti, was stabbed to death in a random, unprovoked attack in New York City’s Times Square. Suspect Pamela Cisneros stabbed Piacenti and a tourist within 20 seconds before refusing police orders to drop two knives. Officers shot Cisneros after a failed Taser attempt. Police ruled out a terror motive.
Times Square Stabbing: Bank Of America VP Erin Piacenti Killed In Random Knife Attack, Suspect Shot Dead By NYPD | Video | X @tecas2000
Bank of America vice president, Erin Piacenti (32), was stabbed to death in what police described as a random and unprovoked attack in New York City’s Times Square on Monday.
Piacenti was reportedly walking home when she was attacked. She suffered stab wounds to her abdomen and was taken to a hospital, where she later succumbed to her injuries.
The attacker, 49-year-old Queens resident Pamela Cisneros, was also shot and killed by police after refusing repeated orders to drop two knives.
Erin Piacenti, a 32-year-old vice president at Bank of America from Chester, New Jersey, was fatally stabbed in an unprovoked attack in Times Square.
She worked in New York City as vice president of business selection and conflicts.
She graduated from the University of… pic.twitter.com/XeRQJYXzqY
According to New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Cisneros was carrying two large knives that she had pulled from a bag bearing the logo of a major supermarket chain. She threatened people in the busy area before attacking two victims in quick succession.
Cisneros first approached 68-year-old tourist Tak Kam and stabbed him in the abdomen. Around 20 seconds later, she attacked Piacenti, also stabbing her in the abdomen. Kam was taken to hospital and remains in stable condition.
Police shot suspect after failed attempts to disarm her
Officers confronted Cisneros and spent about four minutes ordering her to put down the knives. Police said she repeatedly refused to comply.
During the confrontation, Cisneros told officers, “I’m not dropping anything. I would rather kill both of you.”
Police first attempted to stop her with a Taser, but the effort failed as she continued advancing towards the officers. The officers then opened fire, striking her twice. Cisneros was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
BELOW Deck Mediterranean star Nathan Gallagher scowled in a newly released mugshot as authorities beg the public for help to find him after he allegedly fled Australia.
The shocking disappearance of the Bravo star comes amid his domestic violence case as he is accused of “strangling” baby mama, Gael Cameron.
Below Deck Mediterranean star Nathan Gallagher looks stoic in his domestic violence arrest mugshotCredit: NSW Police Force
Nathan, 28, is wanted on an outstanding arrest warrant and is believed to be offshore, according to New South Wales Police.
The law enforcement department shared the striking image on Tuesday that shows Nathan staring straight into the camera with a serious expression.
Dressed casually in a hoodie while showing off a buzz cut, the solemn shot is a stark contrast to the yacht-life persona viewers have come to know him from on Below Deck Mediterranean.
NSW Police shared the image as officers from the Ryde Police Area Command continue their efforts to locate the reality star – who they said they now believe is “overseas.”
They believe Nathan may be dangerous, as they warned the general public to “not approach” the TV star if he’s spotted.
Police then provided a physical description of Nathan and said that he is known to frequent the Ermington and Melrose Park areas of Sydney, Australia.
However, they confirmed that he is believed to now be outside Australia.
Authorities urged anyone with information about Nathan’s whereabouts to contact Ryde Police Station or Crime Stoppers.
Police also reminded the public “NOT to approach” him or submit information through NSW Police social media pages.
The appeal from Australia law enforcement comes after Nathan failed to appear at a local court on Tuesday, where he was due to face three domestic violence-related charges stemming from an alleged incident involving his former partner and Below Deck Mediterranean co-star, Gael.
Nathan was arrested in December 2025 after police responded to reports of an alleged assault at an apartment complex outside of Sydney.
According to police, officers were called to the property on December 26 following reports that a 29-year-old woman had allegedly been assaulted.
Nathan was subsequently charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm, intentionally choking a person without consent and common assault.
He was later granted conditional bail.
The charges were due to be addressed in court on Tuesday, but Nathan did not show.
Prosecutors told the court they believed Nathan was overseas, and he was convicted in his absence on all three charges – with a warrant subsequently issued for his arrest.
A two-year apprehended violence order was also finalized for Gael, according to reports from the court proceedings.
Nathan had previously broken his silence on the case, insisting that the public had not heard the complete story.
In a statement to Rolling Stone, Nathan acknowledged that he had made mistakes but pushed back against being defined solely by allegations made about the relationship.
“I’m not claiming I was perfect. I wasn’t. I made mistakes and I will take responsibility for my own actions,” he told the publication.
However, he claimed he had evidence that could provide a different account of what happened.
“I will not accept being portrayed solely through one person’s account of a relationship when there is another side and evidence relating to it,” he said.
Nathan claimed he had video footage from the night in question, as well as messages and other records that he believed provided “important context.”
“I don’t believe the public has heard the full story surrounding what happened.
HEARTBREAKING letters from people who knew Lindsay Clancy long before her three children died reveal a woman they remembered as a devoted mom, star student and deeply caring nurse.
Friends, former classmates, co-workers and even patients wrote in support of Clancy after the January 2023 killings, sharing personal memories of her childhood, career and dreams of raising a big family.
Lindsay Clancy looks during her murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth on August 20.Credit: Greg Derr/Pool The Patriot Ledge
Clancy killed her three children, five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson and eight-month-old Callan, at the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, on January 24, 2023.
The former labor and delivery nurse is now on trial on three counts of first-degree murder, with her lawyers arguing she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and was not criminally responsible.
But years before jurors were asked to decide her fate, dozens of letters sent to defense attorney Kevin Reddington offered an intimate look at the life those closest to Clancy said they knew.
Longtime friend Brittany J. Barbuto wrote one of the most detailed personal letters included in the filing.
Brittany had known Clancy since sixth grade, remembered a girl who stood out long before she became a nurse and mother.
“A top-of-the-class student, talented athlete, a caring nurse, a passionate teacher,” the friend wrote, adding that Clancy had an “admirable drive” to succeed.
But motherhood, the friend said, eventually became Clancy’s “joy, passion, pride, and purpose.”
Michelle DaConto, who said she had known Clancy since first grade, recalled just how closely her nursing background followed her into motherhood after daughter Cora was born.
“When Cora was born her mommy nursing skills took over and she would check Cora’s vitals at home just to make sure she was okay,” DaConto wrote.
That desire for children apparently went back years.
Former Massachusetts General Hospital nurse Erika Sevieri described a colleague whose life appeared to revolve around her young family.
“I do not know a better mother than Lindsay Clancy,” Sevieri wrote.
“She lived and breathed for her children.”
Another former co-worker, Margaret Hamp, recalled Clancy talking about motherhood even before she married husband Patrick.
Hamp wrote that Clancy once said she wanted to have a “baseball team of children.”
She also remembered Clancy checking a baby monitor while working overnight shifts so she could keep an eye on her sleeping children from work.
Clancy’s nursing career also featured heavily in the letters.
Another Massachusetts General Hospital nurse, Heather Fraser, remembered hearing an equally ambitious number.
“She would often tell us at work that she wanted six children,” Fraser wrote, saying she felt privileged to watch Clancy eventually become a mother.
Laura Sanders, who worked night shifts alongside her at Massachusetts General Hospital for seven years, described her as kind, compassionate, patient and empathetic.
Sanders wrote that it would be difficult to hear anything other than positive remarks from people who knew their “dear sweet Lindsay.”
McNulty said there was nothing Clancy loved more than Cora, Dawson, Callan and Patrick, adding, “I am proud to stand beside her.”
Kendra Keefe, another nurse who worked with Clancy, said she “lived to be a mother” and proudly drew on her own experience when educating new parents at work.
Jenni Hennessey met Clancy when both were graduate nurses and later helped care for her when Callan was born.
Hennessey recalled seeing what she described as joy on Clancy’s face as the newborn rested on her chest, and wrote that the deaths were completely out of character for the woman she knew.
One former patient, Shelby Oster, also wrote to the court about having Clancy at her side during a difficult delivery in 2021.
Oster called her “the best nurse I’ve ever had” and said Clancy remained calm through stressful moments before an emergency C-section.
The letters stretched further back into Clancy’s life.
Stacey Kabat, a postpartum nurse and lactation consultant whom Clancy had shadowed as a nursing student, said she believed the tragedy could have been prevented.
“Please know that if our Lindsay had proper treatment this family would still be together,” Kabat wrote.
Longtime friend Amy Bevins also wrote that Clancy always put her children first and wanted them to feel loved, safe and happy.
Bevins said she trusted Clancy with her own child and believed watching her children grow had been her friend’s greatest joy.
Bevins would later take the witness stand at Clancy’s murder trial and tell jurors the pair had been friends for nearly three decades.
Germany has formally accused Russia of orchestrating a drone attack at Leipzig’s airport last month, prompting the closure of a Russian consulate and tighter entry rules for Russian nationals.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
German officials have pinned last month’s drone attack at Leipzig’s airport squarely on Russia. On August 4, a drone loaded with explosives turned up at Leipzig/Halle Airport in eastern Germany, sitting uncomfortably close to Ukrainian cargo planes.
The bomb never detonated. A faulty trigger mechanism is believed to be why. Investigators think a separate drone crashed into a cargo plane parked nearby, and roughly ten days later, a third drone reportedly surfaced near the airport grounds, according to a report from BBC News.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt framed the incident as textbook Russian hybrid warfare, the kind Europe has grown accustomed to seeing. He warned that Germany shouldn’t expect this to be a one off. His confidence in Russia’s involvement, he said, rests on forensic analysis of the drone equipment paired with intelligence gathered separately.
Berlin Hits Back
Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, appearing next to Dobrindt at the Berlin briefing, unveiled a set of countermeasures. Germany will shutter the Russian consulate in Bonn. The Russian House in Berlin, long rumored to double as a front for espionage and propaganda, is losing its lease too.
Wadephul added that Russian nationals will now face tougher entry screening, and Germany intends to squeeze harder on Russia’s so called shadow fleet, the aging tankers Moscow relies on to dodge Western sanctions tied to its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. He also confirmed that Russia’s ambassador, Sergei Nechayev, had been called in for a formal rebuke, and was later photographed entering the foreign ministry.
Moscow answered fast. Interfax quoted Russia’s foreign minister promising a response to what he called anti-Russian moves, even as the Kremlin continues to deny any hand in the Leipzig incident, brushing off suspicions that security analysts had raised earlier.
Not Just Any Airport
Leipzig/Halle isn’t a minor logistics stop. German and NATO forces use it to move military supplies, and it also hosts Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines, the carrier responsible for most of the country’s air freight.
Allies Line Up Behind Germany
Support poured in quickly. NATO chief Mark Rutte called the evidence clear and backed Germany’s response on X. EU foreign ministers were set to take up the matter that same day in Ireland, where Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged unity against Russian aggression and confirmed fresh sanctions were already in the works.
This morning I spoke with Chancellor Merz to discuss the hybrid attack at Leipzig airport.
I assured him that the EU stands in full solidarity with Germany in the face of this attack by Russia.
We will keep the EU united despite these escalating and serious acts. The German…
Finland stands in full solidarity with its ally Germany after the Russian hybrid attack in Leipzig.
We know the Russian playbook. It attempts to intimidate us, to undermine our resolve and our willingness to support Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion. It will not…
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham dismissed Russian attempts to fracture Western resolve as futile. Finland’s President Alexander Stubb went further, saying Finland recognizes Russia’s playbook of intimidation and won’t be shaken, adding he remains in regular contact with Chancellor Merz and other allied leaders.
A Pattern Across NATO?
Germany isn’t the only NATO country dealing with mystery drones. Several members have logged sightings near airports, military bases, and industrial sites over the past year.
Until now, Berlin had stayed vague, referring only to unnamed foreign powers. American outlets, however, had already reported that U.S. officials privately traced the attack back to Russia. German leaders describe their country as facing daily hybrid threats, and Chancellor Merz warned last week that anyone behind such attacks would pay for it. Germany is now pushing to give its intelligence agencies more teeth, following years of criticism that they lack real authority.
Bangladesh plans to buy electricity from a Chinese waste-to-energy project at Tk 25 per unit amid a power crisis and objections to India’s cross-border charge.
A boy plays with balloons by Buriganga river as smoke emits from a dump yard during sunset in Dhaka. (IMAGE: Reuters File)
The Tarique Rahman-led government is preparing to pay a Chinese company Tk 25 per unit for electricity generated from waste, a tariff about 127% higher than the roughly Tk 11 per unit Bangladesh paid for electricity from Indian suppliers in Financial Year 2025-26.
The development comes days after Dhaka objected to India’s proposed Rs 0.01-per-unit charge for settling cross-border electricity transactions. India later reduced the proposed charge by half to Rs 0.005 per unit.
According to broadcaster India Today, which first reported the development, the Chinese project at Dhaka’s Aminbazar landfill will have a planned capacity of 42 Mega Watt (MW). The project is primarily aimed at tackling the city’s mounting garbage problem and is not a replacement for India’s much larger electricity supplies to Bangladesh.
The decision, however, comes at a sensitive moment as Bangladesh battles severe power shortages, gas supply disruptions and prolonged blackouts, with protests over electricity outages also erupting on the streets.
The proposed Chinese tariff is about 127% higher than the roughly Tk 11 per unit Bangladesh paid for electricity from Indian suppliers in FY 2025-26.
One Taka is valued at 0.77 Indian Rupees and the project in Dhaka’s Aminbazar is not a replacement for India’s much larger electricity supplies to Bangladesh.
Dhaka is seeking to turn an environmental liability, which is its growing mountains of urban waste, into electricity and other useful products. Yet the Tk 25 tariff has put a fresh spotlight on the cost of Bangladesh’s power strategy at a time when every additional unit of electricity and every additional cost is under scrutiny.
India’s Rs 0.01 Charge Vs China’s Tk 25
The contrast became particularly striking after Bangladesh objected to India’s proposed Settlement Nodal Agency (SNA) charge for cross-border electricity transactions.
On August 24, India proposed an SNA charge of Rs 0.005 per unit on electricity supplied to Bangladesh. The charge followed a decision by India’s Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) to introduce SNA charges for cross-border power trade.
The initial proposal had been Rs 0.01 per unit, but the charge was subsequently reduced by half after the Bangladesh Power Development Board raised the issue.
The SNA charge is not the price of electricity itself. It is meant to cover services connected with the movement and settlement of cross-border power, including scheduling, metering, energy accounting and grid operations. Officials have indicated that the additional cost would be relatively small.
That makes Dhaka’s willingness to pay Tk 25 per unit for the Aminbazar waste-to-energy project stand out even more.
The two charges are not directly comparable. India’s SNA fee is an additional transaction and grid-related charge, whereas Tk 25 is the proposed tariff for electricity generated by a waste-to-energy plant, according to the reports cited above.
Bangladesh Is Paying More For Waste-To-Power
According to Bangladesh’s The Daily Star, the average price of imported electricity more than doubled between FY21 and FY25, rising from Tk 5.82 per unit to Tk 11.72 per unit.
Against that backdrop, the proposed Aminbazar tariff of Tk 25 per unit is more than twice the FY25 average price of imported electricity.
But the Aminbazar project is not comparable in scale to Bangladesh’s electricity imports from India.
In FY25, electricity imported from India accounted for approximately 15.8% of Bangladesh’s total electricity purchase cost. Dhaka paid around Tk 19,225 crore for electricity imported from India that year, out of a total power purchase cost of about Tk 1,21,420 crore, according to The Daily Star.
The Chinese project, by contrast, would generate only 42MW. Its primary purpose is waste management, with electricity generation being one of its benefits.
Why Is Bangladesh Paying Tk 25 For Chinese Electricity?
The proposed deal involves electricity generated from waste at the Aminbazar landfill in Dhaka, which is managed by Dhaka North City Corporation.
Dhaka-based New Age reported on August 27 that the Bangladesh government will purchase electricity generated from waste at the landfill from a Chinese company at Tk 25 per unit.
State Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Mir Shahe Alam said the project would have a generation capacity of 42MW and is expected to begin generation within 18 months.
Electricity generated at Aminbazar could be supplied to Bangladesh’s national grid by August or September 2028, according to the minister.
The Iranian strikes came hours after the US military launched a fresh wave of attacks on targets across southern Iran.
Motorists drive past an anti-US billboard in Tehran on August 24. (AFP photo)
Iran launched a fresh wave of ballistic missile and drone attacks targeting US military interests in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain early Wednesday, defying US President Donald Trump’s warning of a “much harder and higher” response.
The Iranian strikes came hours after the US military launched a fresh wave of attacks across southern Iran. Washington said the strikes targeted IRGC infrastructure following recent attempted attacks “against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members.”
Jordan Intercepts 10 Missiles
In Jordan, Iran’s IRGC said it launched a heavy ballistic missile attack on a US Marine Corps base. Iranian media identified the facility as Camp Titin, located near the Gulf of Aqaba.
Iranian news agency Tasnim reported that the attack targeted US forces and claimed a “large number” of American troops were killed. The claim has not been independently verified.
Jordan’s military gave a different account, saying its air defences intercepted and destroyed 10 of 13 ballistic missiles launched from Iran. The remaining three fell in remote areas away from populated centres, adding that no casualties were reported.
Jordanian state television later reported fresh sirens as the Iranian attacks continued. Two US officials told Reuters there were no reported casualties at US facilities in Jordan based on initial information.
Kuwait, Bahrain Also Targeted
Kuwait also came under attack, with its military saying air defences were responding to “hostile missile and drone attacks”. It was the first reported Iranian attack on Kuwait in more than a month.
Iranian media reported that missiles and drones were launched towards US-linked facilities in the country, while loud explosions and warning sirens were heard. Further details on damage or casualties were not immediately available.
In Bahrain, Iran’s army said it launched a wave of drone attacks against radar installations and areas of Sheikh Isa Airbase, where it claimed US forces are stationed.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency described the operation as the 29th phase of “Operation Thunder” and said Tehran was prepared for a “crushing and extensive response” to further attacks.
Bahrain’s Interior Ministry issued a public safety alert on X, urging residents and citizens to remain calm, move to the nearest safe location and follow official updates.
Trump Warned Of ‘Much Harder’ Attack
After the US launched its latest attacks across Iran, Trump warned Tehran against retaliation.
“If the failed Nation of Iran retaliates for this very justified attack, they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level, but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings and, when it is over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Netanyahu made the allegation during a live Instagram interview on Tuesday, saying the attack could have been better contained had he been alerted earlier.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (AFP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused security officials of deliberately not waking him on the morning of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, claiming they knew he would have ordered an immediate military response.
Netanyahu made the allegation during a live Instagram interview on Tuesday, saying the attack could have been better contained had he been alerted earlier.
“Why didn’t they wake me?” Netanyahu asked, claiming officials knew that he would have ordered the army to go on full alert and warned communities along the Gaza border.
“It’s so obvious that all of this could have been done. This has been hidden from the public,” he said.
Netanyahu has previously said he was not woken during the early hours of the attack, but has only recently begun alleging that the decision was intentional.
Netanyahu Blames Security Officials
The prime minister repeated similar claims in a podcast interview published on Monday, pointing the finger at senior military officials and Ronen Bar, who was head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service at the time.
Netanyahu said officials were reluctant to wake him because they feared triggering a military escalation with Hamas based on what he described as a possible “miscalculation”.
“They didn’t believe Hamas would attack,” he said. “They knew exactly what I would do.”
The claims come as Netanyahu faces continued scrutiny over the security failures surrounding the October 7 attack and ahead of closely contested elections later this year.
Sara Netanyahu Faces Backlash
Netanyahu’s remarks came a day after his wife, Sara Netanyahu, accused opposition politician Yair Golan of knowing about the Hamas attack before it happened.
Golan, a former deputy military chief of staff, has rejected the allegation and threatened legal action. He said he rushed to southern Israel after learning of the attack and helped rescue at least six people from the Nova music festival site.
Golan said Sara Netanyahu was spreading a false conspiracy to rewrite the events of October 7. His party also condemned her comments.
Opposition Calls Claims ‘Mad Conspiracy’
Former army chief Gadi Eisenkot, who is seen as a leading potential challenger to Netanyahu, criticised what he called a “mad conspiracy of betrayal”.
The accusations come amid a wider debate in Israel over responsibility for the October 7 security failure. A Channel 13 poll in August found that 40% of Israelis believed internal treason contributed to the attack, rising to 63% among supporters of the current right-wing coalition.
US Vice-President JD Vance has waded into Michigan’s bitter senate race, calling Democratic newcomer Abdul El-Sayed “evil” as he backs Trump ally Mike Rogers in the closely-fought contest.
At an event to support Rogers, Vance also warned El-Sayed to “keep my wife’s name the hell out of your mouth”, after the candidate appeared to suggest that Vance’s late grandfather would not accept Second Lady Usha Vance, who is Hindu.
El-Sayed hit back at Vance later on Monday, accusing the Trump administration of pushing “evil” policies and of “starting wars abroad when there’s peace”.
Recent polling suggests he holds a narrow lead over Rogers in the key battleground state.
Speaking at a rally for Rogers in a Detroit suburb on Monday night, Vance repeatedly accused El-Sayed – who is Muslim – of being a divisive figure with little interest in bringing communities together.
“I realise that there’s something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil and on the rise in the United States of America today,” Vance said, adding that he was seeking to “destroy” the country.
“My message to Abdul El-Sayed is: You can pal around with terrorist sympathisers, and you can say that America deserved 9/11, or you could empathise not with the children who were targeted at Temple Israel, but with the attacker,” the vice-president said.
During his primary, El-Sayed campaigned alongside controversial far-left influencer and Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who once suggested that the US “deserved” the attacks in New York and Washington.
While El-Sayed never said those words and has since distanced himself from Piker, Vance repeatedly linked the two together during his speech.
In an interview with CNN later on Monday, El-Sayed took his own jabs at Vance, accusing the vice-president of a series of “evil” policies during the Trump administration.
“Evil is ripping healthcare away from working people in exchange for tax breaks for billionaires,” El-Sayed said. “Evil is making people pay more for groceries and gas while pushing for trade wars and actual war. Evil is dividing people for your own gain. Evil is selling out your morals for a little bit of power.”
US President Donald Trump and interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez have both heralded the deal as a success
From the moment elite US troops swooped into Nicolás Maduro’s compound in Caracas to forcibly remove him from power in January, President Donald Trump made clear that securing control over Venezuela’s oil resources was a key goal of his administration.
The United States would “run” Venezuela, he said at the time, and manage the sale of Venezuelan oil for the foreseeable future.
The signing of a huge US-Venezuela oil deal in Caracas on Wednesday marked the fruition of that plan. The agreement grants a US-led company 100-year concessions over 17 oilfields in Venezuela, amounting to a staggering 65 billion barrels of crude. That equates to more than a fifth of the country’s proven oil reserves.
Beyond the eye-watering numbers, both sides heralded the deal as good for their respective nations.
President Trump called it “the biggest oil deal in world history”, while the interim Venezuelan President, Delcy Rodríguez, said the agreement was “historic”, and would generate $100bn (£74bn) in investment and more than $200bn in tax revenue.
Others profoundly disagreed.
“This is a terrible deal. [Rodríguez] has given away 20% of the national patrimony for nothing,” said Trump’s former special representative on Venezuela and Iran, Elliott Abrams. “I think she is simply complying with the demands she’s getting from Washington.”
On Tuesday, the White House released a fact sheet which set out some details of the deal’s framework. The US government will work alongside a private business in Venezuela called North American Blue Energy Partners (Nabep), the second largest private oil producer in Venezuela after Chevron.
One extraordinary detail of how the Trump administration will work with Nabep is that the US government will have “veto power over the appointment of any member of the board of directors, and a majority of Nabep’s board of directors must be US citizens”.
With the ongoing US war with Iran increasing prices at the petrol pumps, a boost in oil production outside of the Middle East could affect consumers.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum told Fox Business the pact was “shifting the geopolitical centre of the global energy markets” away from what he called the “choke points in the Middle East” and back to the Western Hemisphere.
There is a logic to the US-Venezuela partnership, Elliott Abrams argued, while Gulf oil supplies are currently so unreliable. But he said the terms are so one-sided they are a “kind of fever dream of what colonialism looks like”.
The White House has spoken of the deal having “re-established the Monroe Doctrine”, an 18th Century principle exerting US power across South America – “purging foreign malign influence from our backyard and ensuring American dominance in our hemisphere is never again questioned”.
Despite the insistence from both governments that the plan will benefit both Venezuelans and Americans, it is not without pitfalls and clear unanswered questions.
The proposed timeframe alone is problematic. Trump has said the agreement will generate profit within two or three years. Energy experts, however, warn the dire state of the Venezuelan oil sector means a decade is more realistic.
Luis Pacheco, of the Baker Institute at Rice University in Houston, told BBC Mundo that Venezuela needs to invest about $100bn over eight years in order to return to its oil production levels of 30 years ago.
“It’s important to know who will manage those resources and for what purpose,” Pacheco said.
“Are they going to put the same people in charge of managing that money who already squandered the biggest oil boom of the century?” he asked, referring to past mismanagement of the country’s oil wealth.
The Venezuelan opposition is concerned the deal deepens President Trump’s relationship with Delcy Rodríguez, whom they accuse of heading the same regime as Maduro.
The Trump administration not only decried Maduro’s government as a corrupt drug cartel, but surrounded Venezuela with the biggest armada of the modern era.
The ease and speed with which Washington has now pivoted to working with Maduro’s former vice-president infuriates the opposition.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner and presidential hopeful, María Corina Machado, may choose not to publicly criticise President Trump, whose support she needs if she hopes to come to power. Others, though, have been more forthcoming.
“You chose to use the power of the United States not to liberate Venezuelans, but to ally yourself with our oppressors,” said Venezuelan economist, Ricardo Hausmann, on social media, directing his comments at the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“You opted to push through an asset seizure, an unconstitutional agreement with an illegitimate and oppressive government, instead of using the leadership of the United States to first restore constitutional order and democracy,” he said.
The lack of an imminent election in Venezuela – or, indeed, any clear plan towards one – strikes many opponents as a betrayal.
There is betrayal felt at the other end of the ideological spectrum, too. Although the governing socialist party, PSUV, has backed Rodríguez over the US deal, many Venezuelan socialists see it as capitulation.
VIPs may down vast quantities of champagne at Arthur Ashe Stadium, but they’ll have to pee with the beer crowd.
The tennis mecca has moved its luxury suites as part of a massive renovation — and well-heeled fans arriving for this year’s event have been horrified to discover that there’s now “no bathroom in the suites!”
Now frantic flacks for luxury brands entertaining their most prized business partners are in a frenzy trying to figure out how to handle their VIPs’ VI-pees.
Hospitality flacks are in a frenzy over celeb clients’ not having a bathroom in new US Open suites.
Two celeb gatekeepers were seen looking flushed when anticipating the embarrassment of having to escort titans of industry to the restroom.
One solution they floated was to have interns to stand on the ladies bathroom line.
“This way, when they have a celebrity in their suite, and the [VIP] has to go to the bathroom, they don’t have to wait! They would just switch places with the placeholder on the bathroom line,” said an insider.
The relocation is part of the stadium’s $800 million renovation, which will see it add 2,000 new courtside seats and a number of ultra-luxe underground lounges.
Reached for comment, US Open spokesperson Brendan McIntyre confirmed the stadium is in “year two of a three-year reimagination,” adding that, “although, the experience remains incredible for this year’s US Open, when the stadium is fully transformed in 2027, it will be truly spectacular.”
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s children are set to attend a private school in the UK — and local parents have already been warned about new strict rules surrounding the young royals.
Royal commentator Kinsey Schofield exclusively told Page Six that residents in the Cotswolds — the posh countryside enclave where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had been house-hunting — were contacted by school officials about new school rules pertaining to high-profile students.
“The message sent to families essentially said that, from time to time, some families joining the school may attract a greater level of public or media interest,” Schofield said.
Parents were sent warning letters over Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (seen here in 2018) having their kids start school in the UK. Samir Hussein/WireImage
The letter also allegedly stated that they aim to make sure all children can enjoy school life in “a safe, happy, and private environment.”
“It then reminded parents and carers not to photograph or film other children without permission, or share photographs, information or details about pupils or their families on social media,” Schofield shared.
The “Kinsey Schofield Unfiltered” podcast host heard from a source that the Sussexes had “approached multiple schools” before relocating across the pond.
Page Six has chosen not to name the school the letters were sent from for privacy reasons; however, we can confirm that the children are attending a different school than the one that sent the message.
Harry and Markle had lived in Montecito, Calif., with their kids — Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5 — for six years after resigning from their royal duties in 2020.
The couple shocked the world earlier this month when news broke that they would be moving back to England for “an extended period.”
Sources told Page Six at the time that Harry wanted his kids to live closer to his dad, King Charles III, who revealed his cancer diagnosis in 2024. We’re told Harry also wants Archie and Lilibet to build relationships with other royal family members.
Last Wednesday, the As Ever founder, 45, and Harry, 41, quietly moved out of their $14 million Montecito estate and flew a six-figure charter on a private jet to the UK.
Page Six exclusively reported that Harry and Markle turned to British hedge fund billionaire Ian Wace to help them financially with their move. Though it is not believed that he is funding their entire stay in the UK.
While it isn’t immediately clear where the “Spare” author and Markle have settled down, Page Six exclusively reported last week that they had been searching for a home in the Cotswolds earlier this year.
Royal journalist Tom Sykes told Page Six at the time that Harry was drawn to the area because it is home to Charles and Camilla’s Highgrove House residence.
“Obviously, that’s where he grew up, living with his father and brother there, and has happy memories,” Sykes said.
Tyler Robinson targeted Charlie Kirk because of his anti-LGBTQ message, which he found “repugnant” given his trans-lover lifestyle, prosecutors claimed at the Provo, Utah, courthouse on Tuesday.
The prosecution laid out Robinson’s alleged motive ahead of a critical ruling on whether the 23-year-old accused assassin will stand trial and be eligible for the death penalty.
“We know what charge Kirk stood for, and those ideas were repugnant to the defendant, who was in a homosexual relationship with a man who was considering transitioning genders,” prosecutor Ryan McBride argued, referring to Robinson’s relationship with partner Lance Twiggs — who also went by Luna.
Tyler Robinson watching Deputy Utah County Attorney Ryan McBride speak during closing arguments in the preliminary hearing on Sept. 1, 2026. via REUTERS
The alleged political targeting is one of several aggravating factors that should make Robinson eligible for the death penalty, McBride claimed.
Robinson could face a firing squad if sentenced to death.
Robinson’s dad was in the courtroom as lawyers discussed his sexuality and how it allegedly inspired the shooting.
Matthew Robinson traveled from his home around three hours away to watch lawyers give closing arguments on the evidence against his 23-year-old son, who stands accused of gunning down the Turning Point USA founder at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10 last year.
Prosecutors showed security camera footage of Robinson allegedly prowling the campus with a rifle hidden in his pants and examined experts who said his DNA was likely on the rifle and a screwdriver left at the crime scene, in the first stage of the preliminary hearing in July.
They also presented video testimony from Robinson’s trans lover Lance Twiggs, who claimed Robinson confessed to the shooting in texts and an emotional in-person conversation.
The United States’ move to welcome Russia back to a meeting of G20 countries on Monday while denying some journalists access to the gathering dismayed some finance leaders present, deflecting from its bid to focus talks on global economic growth.
The two-day meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, comes as the global economy is being buffeted by an energy shock triggered by the Iran war, faces rising tensions over China’s huge goods trade surplus and is braced for how an investment surge in AI will ultimately play out.
Finance ministers and central bank governors from G20 countries attend a plenary session in Asheville, North Carolina, U.S., August 31, 2026. REUTERS/Sam Wolfe Purchase Licensing Rights
As U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent opened the meeting, some ministers were surprised and dismayed to see Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov sitting at the G20 table, the first time they had attended the forum in person since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Polish Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski told Reuters he was unhappy to see Russia represented, although he recognised the right of G20 hosts to invite guests.
“We do not trust Russia. They lie constantly and you need to be really, really cautious while discussing with them,” he told Reuters in an interview, stressing that Russia was the aggressor in its conflict with Ukraine.
“So for me it would be very difficult to have any kind of conversation with Russia.”
Siluanov also held a bilateral meeting with Bessent that covered financial cooperation within the G20 framework, Russia’s finance ministry said. A U.S. official said the focus of that meeting was on President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine. A source familiar with the discussions said Bessent told Siluanov no economic relief for Russia or agreements on other issues were possible until the war ends.
German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said Europe was preparing a further package of sanctions against Russia, but Siluanov’s presence at the Asheville meeting sent a “quite troubling” signal for U.S. cooperation with the effort.
“I would have wanted greater clarity from the American side that he should not be received here as a normal guest,” Klingbeil said.
European officials also said they opposed appearing in the traditional “family photo” of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, adding that this ultimately was taken without Siluanov.
His appearance marks a stark contrast from April 2022, when even his virtual participation in a G20 meeting in Washington drew broad condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and prompted a walkout by officials from the U.S., Britain, Canada and the European Central Bank. FOCUS ON GROWTH
Bessent told reporters that stronger growth was the best path out of a debt overhang built up since the 2008 global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Global debt levels earlier this year hit a record of nearly $353 trillion, leading to concerns about financial stability and prompting some investors to reappraise even traditionally safe havens such as U.S. Treasuries.
“The world is awash in debt post-GFC, post-COVID, and the only way for us to get out of this is to grow our way out of this,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the start of the meeting, referring to the 2007 to 2009 global financial crisis.
“I’m confident that a lot of the leaders are very receptive to this,” he added.
The Treasury also took the unusual step of inviting private-sector luminaries to participate in some of the G20 sessions on promoting stronger growth, reflecting the Trump administration’s view that growth was best served by deregulation, producing more energy and fostering innovation.
Bessent told one of the sessions that global growth had underperformed its potential for too long and that causes can no longer include “policy failures of our own making.”
He said the U.S. Treasury had identified several impediments to growth that G20 countries needed to work on, including “excessive regulatory and administrative burdens, poorly designed financial incentives and tax systems, insufficient public and private investment, internal market fragmentation, and gaps in workforce skills and mobility.” PRESS ACCESS DENIALS
Another issue that drew criticism was the U.S. Treasury’s decision to deny certain journalists media credentials to cover the event, including teams from Bloomberg News and specific reporters from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
“I believe the press has a completely legitimate interest in reporting openly and freely on this G20 summit,” Klingbeil said. “I consider it unacceptable for journalists or entire editorial teams to be excluded.”
A U.S. Treasury spokesperson said that over 300 media were covering the event, including another New York Times reporter, and access comes with a “responsibility to report factual information consistent with established journalistic standards.”
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh, attending his first international economic policy meeting since taking office in May, said he was looking forward to learning more about growth prospects among member economies. He said an era of “secular stagnation” marked by a lack of innovation looked to be over amid an AI investment boom.
“If I were to try to characterize this moment, it would be one of a global investment surge,” he said, adding that it had reversed the “global savings glut”, which in the past had kept capital idle due to a shortage of investment opportunities.
U.S. President Donald Trump has spoken to Apple about changing the name of “Lake Ontario” to “Lake America” and the company may soon alter its maps, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said on Monday.
Trump announced on Thursday that he was changing the name of the smallest of the five Great Lakes, part of an escalating trade feud with Canada that has prompted the two countries to impose reciprocal tariffs on billions of dollars in goods.
Birds rest on rocks in Lake Ontario after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America, a change he said would take effect immediately, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, August 27, 2026. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio Purchase Licensing Rights
“The president reached out to Apple directly, so I’m sure that we may be seeing that change coming up soon to Lake America,” Burgum said in an interview on Fox Business’ “Mornings with Maria” program.
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened further strikes against Iran on Monday after the first exchange of direct attacks in a month, raising tensions in a conflict that had recently shifted into an economic standoff.
Iran launched missiles overnight at two U.S. air bases in Jordan in response to a U.S. attack on Iran’s Larak Island, where Washington said it had struck Iranian launchers firing mines into the Strait of Hormuz.
[1/2] Projectiles streak across the sky in this screengrab taken from footage published by Iranian authorities purporting to show missiles launched at US military targets in Jordan from an unknown location, released on August 31, 2026. Wana News Agency via REUTERS Purchase Licensing RightsThe exchange highlighted how quickly a conflict that has increasingly been fought through sanctions, blockades and economic pressure can still spill back into military action. While neither side appeared to be seeking a return to full-scale war, both signalled they were prepared to respond to further attacks.
“We’re going to hit them hard,” a Fox News reporter quoted Trump as later telling the channel. “There will be a response.”
Separately, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the renewed strikes did not signal a return to full-scale war, describing Iran as a “failed nation” whose economy and military had been severely degraded. “That doesn’t mean we won’t smack them. We’ll see what happens.”
Asked whether he had ruled out using nuclear weapons against Iran, Trump said there was “no reason” to do so because Iran was already “totally defeated militarily.”
A senior Iranian source told Reuters the overnight exchanges of fire, the first since late July, were a “limited and contained confrontation” but said Tehran would deliver a harsh response if attacked again.
Trump said U.S. air defences had downed all Iranian missiles that could have caused any damage and that new U.S. economic sanctions on Iran were having a big impact, Fox News reported.
Earlier, Trump had posted to social media two videos depicting explosions engulfing Iran’s main oil export terminal, with the message “Kharg island being blown to smithereens!!!”
But the videos were generated by AI and no such attack took place. Iran called Trump’s post “laughable”. Vice President JD Vance told reporters Trump “likes to switch it up on social media a little bit” and was “sending a message”.
Washington has so far mainly held off from hitting Iran’s major oil and gas infrastructure, a move that Iran says would be met with devastating attacks against its Gulf neighbours. PILING ON ECONOMIC PRESSURE
Washington has, instead, stepped up efforts to punish Tehran and its business partners with “secondary sanctions” that hit third countries buying its oil.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Iran was “lashing out” now because the new sanctions were taking a toll on its economy.
“They’re in shock at the state of their economy,” Bessent told reporters at a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in North Carolina. “I would think that they are lashing out kinetically because they are losing economically.”
Bessent told Reuters on Sunday that new secondary sanctions were likely to be unveiled weekly in the effort to pressure Iran, with an initial focus on banks. US HIT IRANIAN ISLAND IN STRAIT OF HORMUZ
U.S. forces struck two Iranian launchers on Iran’s Larak Island on Sunday, a U.S. official said, after “Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz”.
Three people were killed in the U.S. attack, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported. The state-affiliated Nournews said two of them had been identified as members of the Revolutionary Guards Navy.
Larak is a small island in the strait near the strategic Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. The Strait of Hormuz, which normally handles a fifth of global crude oil and gas shipments, has been effectively blocked since the start of the war.
In a statement, the U.S. Central Command said it had taken “limited, precise” action against minelaying forces of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards that posed an “imminent threat” in the strait. It gave no details.
Iranian state TV quoted the Revolutionary Guards as saying a supertanker had caught fire and been brought to a halt after being struck by two naval mines in the south of the strait. The U.S. military later denied the claim.
Crisis in American agriculture led Hallie Shoffner, an Arkansas farmer, to quit working fields her family had cultivated for over a century. Now, Shoffner’s ordeal is fueling a Democratic bid for the U.S. Senate. Reuters examines the discontent in the U.S. farm belt and its possible impact on power in Washington.
In her campaign to unseat an incumbent senator, Hallie Shoffner blames Republican policies for the high costs and dwindling margins that have crippled American farmers. REUTERS/Karen Pulfer Focht
A decade ago, Hallie Shoffner quit a career in non-profits to help her aging parents run the family farm. For more than a century, their land had endured droughts and floods, booms and busts, the shift from traditional farming to the mechanized, high-tech planting of rice, soy and other commodities that now dominate American agriculture.
At first, Shoffner thrived, proud to continue tilling their fertile soil on the western fringe of the Mississippi Delta. Last year, however, she came to a difficult, if unavoidable conclusion: The business, beset by increasingly high costs and vanishing profit margins, could no longer survive. She sold machinery, tools – nearly everything but the land and homestead built by her great-granduncle in 1901.
Shoffner’s ordeal recently sparked another sharp career turn for the 39-year-old wife and mother: Democratic Party nominee for the U.S. Senate. Ahead of the November Congressional elections, Shoffner believes the problems that hurt her farm, and many more like it across rural Arkansas, can loosen the grip that Republicans in recent decades forged across the U.S. farm belt.
It will be difficult.
A recent poll, conducted by news website Talk Business & Politics, and Arkansas’ Hendrix College, suggested the race between Shoffner and incumbent Senator Tom Cotton could be close. But Cotton has been in Congress since 2013, two years before Shoffner returned home to farm, and no Democrat has won federal office or the governorship of Arkansas since 2010. The senator’s campaign coffers dwarf Shoffner’s and the three major non-partisan election analysis groups rate the outcome as safely Republican.
Cotton, through his reelection campaign, declined to be interviewed for this report. Brian Colas, a spokesman for the campaign, in an email scorned Shoffner as a phony with little to offer. “Shoffner’s attempt to pose as a moderate farmer is a fraud,” he wrote. “Shoffner’s far-left social positions and her far-left economic positions matter to Arkansas voters.”
Shoffner is undeterred.
She is among a growing number of Democratic candidates and a new crop of rural politicians with direct ties to agriculture betting that the woes now wracking U.S. farms outweigh the conservatism and social issues that have enabled Republicans to dominate the South and the broader American heartland. “No one in Washington really realizes how bad things are right now,” Shoffner told Reuters, steering her dusty pickup toward a recent campaign stop near Little Rock, the state capital. “If I can’t farm, then I’m going to fight to fix this.”
Her pitch to rural voters is about economics, not any radical shift in party loyalty. Shoffner herself, a center-left Democrat and a Christian, doesn’t expect a sudden embrace of progressive politics.
No one in Washington really realizes how bad things are right now. If I can’t farm, then I’m going to fight to fix this.
Hallie Shoffner
But the difficulties facing farmers, and the suppliers and industries that serve them, could sour voters on the status quo, some electoral researchers say. “We’re looking at at least more competitive elections than we would have anticipated a year or two ago,” said John C. Davis, a political scientist at the University of Arkansas. “That’s noteworthy.”
Farming is a cyclical business. Even the most fertile lands and bountiful harvests can be upended by weather, soil conditions, or sudden shifts in supply and demand, global trade and economic policy.
Despite such ebbs and flows, the U.S. farm economy early this century managed to grow, fueled by demand from China. Since 2018, however, market conditions have worsened, squeezing farmers who face mounting financial pressure.
First, President Donald Trump, during his first administration, began imposing tariffs on Chinese goods, prompting Beijing to retaliate with levies that dampened demand for American crops. COVID-19 and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East followed, stoking inflation and causing seed, fertilizer and pesticide prices to soar. Higher interest rates, meanwhile, raised the cost of credit.
To alleviate losses for farmers, the federal government in recent years has provided hundreds of billions of dollars in payments to farmers. But the root causes of the problems remain. Growers and economists alike say today’s business environment is among the worst since a wave of foreclosures and bankruptcies crippled American farmers in the 1980s.
American farm debt – including loans for both real estate and operating expenses like seeds, fertilizer, and machinery – this year is projected to balloon to about $625 billion, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The figure, adjusted for inflation, is 3.2% higher than last year and a nearly 18% increase from 2019. It has outpaced debt levels across other sectors of the economy.
Compared with many other businesses, farmers are forced to borrow just to continue operating. That’s because regardless of economic conditions, they need land, supplies and equipment that regularly require large capital investments. They can’t pivot as easily as businesses in other sectors.
“You can’t do that in agriculture,” said Trey Malone, an agricultural economist at Purdue University. Many small retail companies and manufacturers after the pandemic successfully scaled back, moved online and became more efficient. “Those small businesses had a release valve farmers don’t.”
Agriculture, food and related industries generate more than $1.5 trillion annually, according to federal figures – about 5.5% of the U.S. economy. Turmoil in the sector could easily spill over. In Arkansas, the country’s top producer of rice, the crisis is hitting rural communities hard.
The state, for the twelve months ending June 30, led the U.S. in the number of Chapter 12 bankruptcy filings. The filings, a type of restructuring made available to family farmers under federal law, are considered by economists to be a lagging indicator of stress. Further problems may lie out there as farmers like Shoffner explore liquidations and other extreme options.
As she campaigns at social halls, pizza parlors and machinery sheds statewide, Shoffner warns about the consequences the new farm crisis could bring. Arkansas, she argues, should diversify its economy, building processing facilities to add value to commodities locally instead of sending them out for processing elsewhere. New industry and new crops, she says, are needed to make even cities less vulnerable to commodity swings.
“Rural Arkansas needs to thrive for everyone to thrive,” she told one audience. “When one farm goes out of business, like when my farm went out of business, a whole bunch of other people lose.”
Reuters recently spent three weeks with Shoffner and Arkansas voters to examine the problems at U.S. farms and their potential economic and political implications nationwide. Be they growers, businesspeople, or everyday citizens eyeing gathering clouds on the horizon, all agreed their worries can no longer be ignored.
“EVERYTHING MY PARENTS HAD BUILT”
Nestled between the conservative strongholds of the Deep South and Lower Midwest, Arkansas is among the least likely places in the U.S. for a Democrat to gain traction. As in other Southern states, Arkansas in recent decades shed loyalty to the party and increasingly voted Republican, their Bible Belt values at odds with what they considered elitist, metropolitan worldviews of many Democrats.
Even Democrat Bill Clinton, who famously used the Arkansas governor’s mansion as a springboard to the presidency in 1992, did so by pulling his party rightward. In the decades since he left the White House, the state fully embraced the mix of populist and conservative ideas that now define Trumpism. In the 2024 election, Trump carried the state by over 30 percentage points.
But now, as rural communities struggle, candidates like Shoffner are emerging, voicing discontent over economic and trade policies. Nationwide, Reuters identified at least 30 candidates with farming, ranching or other agricultural backgrounds running for federal office. Nearly three-quarters of those have never held federal elected positions. Almost half are Democrats or independents seeking to unseat Republicans.
In Louisiana, vegetable farmer Conrad Cable, a 34-year-old progressive Democrat, is running a populist campaign against Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives. Cable blames tariffs and budget cuts by Trump and his party for the decline of Louisiana farms, rural economies and local healthcare.
“Because of Republican policies, we have 12 to 14 rural hospitals that are set to close next year,” said Cable, who lives in Farmerville, in northern Louisiana. “It means people I love will die.”
A spokesperson for Johnson in a statement said the speaker has led initiatives that improve healthcare and support agriculture in rural communities across the country. Those efforts have included House passage, for the first time in nearly a decade, of a Farm Bill, as the country’s major agriculture legislation is known. The bill is still pending in the Senate.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly in an email to Reuters said, “President Trump has done more for American agriculture than anyone.” She said administration measures including trade deals, tax relief, and rural development have all benefitted the sector. “The president will continue taking actions to support our great farmers and ranchers while driving economic prosperity for all Americans.”
In the late 1980s, rural discontent helped Democrats wrest the Senate from Reagan Republicans. They successfully contrasted hardship in the heartland with the excesses of Wall Street and the consumerist culture of that decade. The message hurt incumbents by suggesting that “the legislation they have brought forth is not actually bringing prosperity to our communities,” said Cory Haala, a South Dakota State University professor who authored a book about the time.
Shoffner, the sixth generation to work the family soil, was born in that era, growing up in the 1901 farmhouse. Her father farmed. Her mother started a research business that tested and developed seed varieties on their land, about 90 miles northeast of Little Rock. A road sign still identifies the area as Shoffner, for the unincorporated town that once existed around their farm.
After high school, Shoffner earned a degree in Spanish from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, spending a summer in India teaching English. While earning a master’s degree from the Clinton School of Public Service, she interned with a women’s rights organization in Peru.
School behind her, Shoffner returned to Little Rock and joined a series of non-profit and marketing organizations. In 2015, she was working for a startup when her mother called. Her father had begun forgetting appointments, leaving the farm early for reasons he couldn’t remember. He was later diagnosed with dementia.
Shoffner quit her job and came home to farm.
She spent long days with her parents – walking fields, studying crops, tracking finances. By 2017, she was running the farm herself. She says the work was hard but fulfilling. She gave birth to a son, now 7.
For a spell, the farm thrived. She grew rice, corn, soybeans. “I loved everything about it,” Shoffner says.
By summer of 2024, soaring costs made the outlook increasingly grim. Shoffner recalls sitting inside the farmhouse, building spreadsheets, calculating the right mix of acreage and crops to avoid a loss. One scenario, the only feasible option she saw, would involve slashing the operation – planting rice on about 500 acres, roughly a quarter of what the family farmed in better times.
Still, with interest rates near recent highs, financing would be onerous. Her lender approved a nearly $1 million operating loan for the coming season, but the farmland and her parents’ savings would be the collateral. Although the stipulation wasn’t new, it now appeared too risky for a plan that left little room for error or setbacks beyond her control.
Shoffner had no way of predicting problems then just around the corner – further Trump tariffs, additional spikes in fuel and fertilizer prices. But she had farmed long enough to know that things rarely go according to plan. “I couldn’t risk everything my parents had built,” Shoffner says.
She called her parents. Then she called the auctioneer.
“We got her in fast,” said Kirk Witcher, an auctioneer who handles farm liquidations in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee. Including Shoffner’s, Witcher last year oversaw 19 farm liquidations. This year, he told Reuters, he managed that many by mid-May.
Over two weeks in March 2025, Shoffner sold tires, equipment, and more. A tractor fetched $130,500, while a heap of scrap metal sold for $40. Total proceeds: just over $1 million.
Shoffner still worries whether it was enough. The family this year filed for an extension on taxes related to the liquidation, seeking more time to know just how much they owe. “It’s a mess,” she says. “We still haven’t figured it out.”
Tim Cook has described John Ternus as a leader with both engineering and organisational strengths.
Meet John Ternus, Apple’s new CEO and longtime hardware chief. (REUTERS)
During his first year at Apple in 2001, John Patrick Ternus found himself at a supplier facility late one night, far from home, with a magnifying glass for company. He was counting grooves on the heads of screws meant to be packaged with the Apple Cinema HD Display, which would eventually launch in early 2002.
There were 35 grooves. Apple’s specification called for 25. Ternus argued. He won. The supplier changed the screw design to have exactly 25 concentric grooves.
John Ternus becomes Apple CEO after 25 years
On September 1, Ternus, 51, will no longer simply be one of the people who builds Apple’s products, but the person responsible for all of them. After 25 years at the company, including the last several years overseeing its hardware engineering, the engineer will succeed Tim Cook as chief executive officer, while Cook moves to the role of executive chairman.
When the time comes to write an origin story for the Ternus era at Apple, it may well begin with that night in 2001. The details nobody sees are worth getting right. That has long been Apple’s philosophy. It appears to have become Ternus’s as well.
John Ternus’ early years and engineering career
Speaking at the University of Pennsylvania’s engineering commencement in 2024, Ternus recalled finding his first days at Apple intimidating, surrounded by colleagues who seemed to know far more than he did. He told the graduating class that he learned the importance of asking for help rather than pretending to have all the answers. “I wasn’t sure I belonged there,” he said. The argument over the screw grooves was an early indication that he did.
Ternus, who grew up in California, went east to study at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1997. He began his career as a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems, a small company building early virtual-reality headsets.
He joined Apple in 2001 and rose steadily through the organisation, becoming a vice president in 2013 and senior vice-president of hardware engineering in 2021, the top job in the division. Over the following years, Ternus’s hardware organisation was responsible for products spanning the iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro.
Apple Silicon transition under Ternus
One of the defining technical bets of that period was Apple’s transition of the Mac from Intel processors to its own Apple Silicon. The transition, which began in 2020, was completed across the Mac line-up ahead of the company’s previously announced two-year transition timeline. The shift reshaped Apple’s approach to personal computing and gave it greater control over the performance and power efficiency of its devices.
Not bad for someone nicknamed “Crash” in his senior year at Penn after nearly destroying a CNC machine. Ternus has not publicly disclosed much about the incident.
John Ternus’ work at University of Pennsylvania
His work at university, however, was considerably more serious than the nickname suggests. Ternus and his classmates developed a device intended to help people with quadriplegia feed themselves, translating movements of the head and neck into those of a mechanical feeding arm. The group designed and built a working passive head-controlled feeding aid called HINT.
Tim Cook backs John Ternus as Apple’s next leader
Tim Cook has described Ternus as a leader with both engineering and organisational strengths.
“John Ternus has the mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity and with honour. He is a visionary whose contributions to Apple over 25 years are already too numerous to count, and he is without question the right person to lead Apple into the future,” Cook said.
From engineering genius to a leader
Ternus takes charge of Apple at a moment of considerable strength. The company reported its strongest June quarter, with double-digit revenue growth across the iPhone, Mac and Services businesses and in every geography. But he also inherits a company facing a different set of challenges from those that defined Cook’s tenure.
Geopolitical uncertainty, supply-chain pressures and rising component costs continue to complicate the business of making and selling Apple’s devices around the world. At the same time, Apple faces pressure to demonstrate that it can compete more aggressively in artificial intelligence, an area in which rivals including Google and OpenAI have captured much of the public narrative.
However, there is no ignoring the challenges posed by headwinds from geopolitical uncertainty, supply chain inflexibility and inflated bill of materials. It is an inevitability that iPhones will become more expensive. Could we see a $2,000 foldable iPhone? Almost every other phone maker has already placed heftier price tags on phones already on sale.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, was charged with murder in connection with the 1996 shooting that killed Tupac Shakur.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis found guilty of murdering hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur. (via REUTERS)
A Las Vegas jury on Monday found former gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of murdering hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur, bringing a nearly 30-year-old case to a close.
Davis, 63, was charged with murder in connection with the 1996 shooting that killed Shakur. He had pleaded not guilty.
What happened to Tupac Shakur?
Prosecutors said Davis helped plan the shooting after Shakur and his friends got into a fight with Davis’ nephew at a Las Vegas casino on September 7, 1996.
Davis and three other men later drove around Las Vegas looking for Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight, prosecutors said.
Davis has previously said he passed a gun to someone in the back seat before they found Shakur’s car. A gunman then opened fire, killing Shakur and wounding Knight.
The person who fired the shots has never been publicly identified. The three other men who were in the car with Davis have since died.
Under Nevada law, Davis could be convicted even if he did not personally fire the gun. Prosecutors argued that he helped plan and carry out the attack.
Davis had been on police’s radar for years, but authorities did not arrest him until 2023. Prosecutors relied heavily on his own statements, including comments he made in interviews, his memoir and recorded conversations.
Davis’ defense argued that his statements were exaggerated and amounted to gang-related boasting. His lawyers also said there was not enough evidence to prove he played a role in the killing.
Trump did not signal if the review would change the United States’ position on sovereignty, which has generally avoided taking sides since 1982.
US President Donald Trump said he was reviewing the United States’ position on the Falkland Islands.
US President Donald Trump said he was reviewing the United States’ position on the Falkland Islands, the remote British-ruled archipelago in the South Atlantic.
“I always review every position. That’s just one of many,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about the islands’ sovereignty.
Trump did not signal if the review would change the United States’ position on sovereignty, which has generally avoided taking sides since 1982.
A day after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 last year that claimed 26 lives, India took a series of punitive measures against Pakistan, including suspending the Indus Water Treaty.
The Indus Waters Treaty was designed to govern the sharing of the Indus River system between India, Pak
India is firm: The Indus Waters Treaty’s suspension remains in force and the Hague-based Permanent Court Of Arbitration “has no jurisdiction on India’s sovereign decisions” after it urged New Delhi to uphold the water-sharing treaty with Pakistan.
The Court of Arbitration, the world’s oldest permanent forum for international dispute, further said that India had no justification for ending or suspending the agreement and that the treaty between the two subcontinent arch-rivals remained fully in force.
Executed in September 1960, the Indus Waters Treaty was designed to govern the sharing of the Indus River system between India and Pakistan.
A day after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 last year that claimed 26 lives, India took a series of punitive measures against Pakistan, including suspending the water-sharing framework.
Reaffirming its long-standing principle that “blood and water cannot flow together,” New Delhi has made it clear that treaty operations will remain suspended until Islamabad takes verifiable, irreversible action to dismantle cross-border terror networks operating from its soil.
“This so called Court was constituted by the World Bank in patent breach of the terms of the Treaty and India categorically rejects its so-called award, just as it has firmly rejected all prior pronouncements by this illegally constituted body,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
The statement further underscores that India has never recognised the existence in law of this “illegally-constituted body”, and has “consistently maintained that the very establishment of this alleged arbitral body constitutes a grave violation of the Indus Waters Treaty”.
Pakistan had sought arbitration over disagreements concerning the design of India’s Kishenganga and Ratle hydroelectric projects on the western rivers of the Indus system.
India has objected to the arbitration process from the start.
New Delhi argues that disputes of this nature are technical and should be examined by a Neutral Expert, as provided for under the treaty. Allowing a Court of Arbitration to simultaneously examine the same issues, India says, goes against the dispute-resolution mechanism laid down in the agreement.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed the fatality, saying the attacker and one victim had died following the incident.
Police vehicles are seen in the area where an officer-involved shooting left one dead near Times Square, in New York. (AFP photo)
A woman carrying multiple knives stabbed two people in New York’s Times Square on Tuesday before responding police officers deployed a Taser and opened fire, killing the alleged attacker, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.
Addressing the media, Mamdani said one of the two victims had died, while the second remained hospitalised in stable condition. The alleged attacker also died after being shot by police.
“I am deeply saddened to report that one of the victims has passed away, as has the alleged perpetrator. The second victim is currently in the hospital in stable condition,” Mamdani said.
“I want to thank the NYPD officers who stepped in and prevented a horrific attack from becoming even worse,” he added.
Police Open Fire After Stabbing
A witness told local outlet PIX11 that the woman was carrying two knives and was tasered by police before she rushed towards officers.
“They shot her twice,” the unnamed witness said.
The New York Police Department described the incident as a “confirmed officer-involved shooting” and said a press briefing would be held later.
“Right now, it’s still an active and ongoing investigation,” an NYPD spokeswoman told AFP.
Police have not yet released the identities of the attacker or victims.
The Trump administration has revived a proposal to remove H-4 spouses from EAD eligibility. Here is what has changed and what it means for H-1B families.
The Trump administration has revived a proposal that could remove H-4 spouses from eligibility for US employment authorisation. (AI-generated image/News18)
The Trump administration has revived a proposal that could end employment authorisation for certain spouses of H-1B visa holders, potentially affecting families that rely on the second income earned by an H-4 spouse.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has placed a proposal titled ‘Removing H-4 Dependent Spouses From the Classes of Noncitizens Eligible for Employment Authorisation’ on its regulatory agenda.
The proposal seeks to reverse a policy introduced in 2015 that allows certain H-4 dependent spouses of H-1B workers to apply for Employment Authorisation Documents (EADs).
However, the move has not yet changed the rules. The proposal is classified as a “Long-Term Action”, and the regulatory agenda does not provide a date for publication of a formal proposed rule.
What Has The Trump Administration Proposed?
Under the proposal, DHS would remove certain H-4 dependent spouses from the class of noncitizens eligible to request employment authorisation under the C26 category.
The federal regulatory record says the move would reverse the changes made by the 2015 final rule, titled “Employment Authorisation for Certain H-4 Dependent Spouses”, and restore DHS’s earlier policy of not extending employment-authorisation eligibility to H-4 dependent spouses.
The proposal therefore targets the spouse’s ability to obtain work authorisation, rather than the H-1B worker’s own visa or employment status.
Currently, H-4 status itself does not automatically provide work authorisation.
Under existing USCIS rules, certain H-4 spouses can apply for an EAD when the H-1B spouse is the beneficiary of an approved Form I-140 immigrant petition, or has received certain H-1B extensions under provisions of the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act (AC21).
If the proposal eventually becomes a final rule, that eligibility could be removed.
Nothing Has Changed For Existing H-4 EAD Holders Yet
The most important point for H-4 EAD holders is that the regulatory-agenda listing is not a final rule.
DHS has not yet published the formal Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for this measure. The official regulatory record lists the date for the NPRM as “To Be Determined”.
Before the government could make a new rule effective, it would have to publish the proposed regulation, provide an opportunity for public comments, consider those comments and then publish a final rule with an effective date.
That means there is currently no immediate cancellation of H-4 EADs.
Eligible spouses continue to be able to apply under the existing USCIS framework, and people with valid employment authorisation remain covered by the rules currently in force.
The exact treatment of existing EAD holders, pending applications and renewals would also depend on the details of any future proposed and final rule.
Why The H-4 EAD Matters
The H-4 EAD programme dates back to 2015, when DHS allowed certain spouses of H-1B workers pursuing employment-based permanent residence to seek work authorisation.
The policy was designed in part around the lengthy waits faced by H-1B families pursuing green cards. Under the current system, eligible H-4 spouses can work only after obtaining the required EAD.
The programme has consequently allowed spouses to remain in the workforce while their H-1B partners navigate the employment-based immigration process.
The potential rollback could therefore have a direct economic impact on households in which both spouses work.
If employment authorisation were ultimately withdrawn, an affected H-4 spouse could no longer continue working on the basis of that EAD.
The effect would vary considerably between families depending on whether the H-4 spouse is employed, the household’s reliance on that income and what transition provisions, if any, are included in a final rule.
Why Indian H-1B Families Could Be Significantly Affected
The issue has particular relevance for Indian families because Indians make up a substantial share of the H-1B population, while the H-4 EAD has also been widely used by Indian spouses.
A Congressional Research Service analysis cited in recent reporting found that about 93 per cent of roughly 126,853 H-4 EAD applications approved between 2014 and 2017 were for Indian nationals, while 94 per cent were for women.
The analysis also noted that H-4 EAD holders included professionals working in areas such as medicine, STEM, education and technology.
This does not mean that only Indian families would be affected. H-4 spouses of H-1B workers from all nationalities could potentially be covered by a future rule.
For Indian families, however, the consequences could be particularly significant because many H-1B workers and their dependants remain in the US for extended periods while waiting for employment-based permanent residence.
The H-4 EAD has allowed eligible spouses to earn an income and maintain careers during that period. Removing that option could therefore mean the loss of a second household income for families where the spouse is working.
This Is Not The First Attempt To End H-4 Work Authorisation
The administration has attempted to revisit H-4 EAD eligibility before.
During Trump’s first administration, DHS repeatedly placed plans to remove H-4 spouses from employment-authorisation eligibility on its regulatory agenda. The earlier effort ultimately did not result in a final rule.
The federal regulatory record shows the proposal appearing through several agenda cycles before being listed as a completed action in 2021.
The latest proposal is therefore a revival of a policy objective that has been considered previously, rather than an entirely new concept.
USCIS has also previously confirmed that it was working on a proposed rule to rescind the 2015 H-4 employment-authorisation rule.
In remarks released by USCIS, the agency said the regulation would seek to remove certain H-4 spouses from the class eligible for employment authorisation.
H-4 Move Comes Amid H-1B Changes
The H-4 proposal comes as the Trump administration pursues changes to the H-1B system.
DHS recently proposed an additional $103,265 fee for new H-1B cap-subject petitions. The proposal was published in the Federal Register in August.
The administration is also pursuing other changes affecting H-1B workers and employment-based immigration. The H-4 proposal would extend that policy focus to the employment rights of spouses accompanying H-1B workers.
For H-1B families, the combined effect of these measures could therefore be significant if they ultimately take effect.
Rescue teams are working to reach around 100 hydropower workers believed to be trapped inside several tunnels in Nepal’s Rasuwa district.
Damaged houses lie deluged in sludge after flash floods at Trishuli Center in Nepal’s Nuwakot district on August 31. (AFP photo)
Rescuers battled mud, debris and treacherous terrain as the death toll from devastating flash floods in Nepal and Tibet climbed to more than 950, with over 4,400 people still missing — as the disaster entered its second week with no end to the crisis in sight.
The floods, triggered by a glacial collapse near the China-Nepal border, sent a huge surge of water, rocks and debris through villages and towns last Wednesday. At least 17 bodies have also been recovered from rivers downstream in India.
Rescue Teams Race To Reach Trapped Workers
Rescue teams are working to reach around 100 hydropower workers believed to be trapped inside several tunnels in Nepal’s Rasuwa district.
Three bodies have so far been recovered from two tunnels, while mud and debris have blocked access to the affected areas. An Indian Army officer involved in the tunnel rescue operation said teams were digging through thick sludge but remained hopeful of finding survivors.
Nepal has deployed around 20,600 personnel for rescue and relief operations, while more than 3,100 people have been rescued from affected areas.
The scale of the disaster has left entire communities devastated, with roads destroyed, bridges swept away and power plants damaged.
Nepali Prime Minister Balendra Shah has called the disaster as “unimaginable and heartbreaking”.
Bodies Recovered As Families Search For Missing
With mortuaries overwhelmed, Nepal has begun burying unidentified bodies after collecting DNA samples so they can potentially be identified and returned to families later.
Relatives have been gathering at community centres to look at images of recovered bodies in the hope of finding missing loved ones. Nepal has also appealed for international assistance, saying it needs more than 1,000 freezer units to store bodies.
Among those listed as missing in Nepal are 592 foreigners, including trekkers and Hindu pilgrims travelling to Tibet’s Mount Kailash.
In Tibet, China has reported 16 deaths and 546 missing people. More than 2,000 personnel are involved in rescue operations there, but access to the disaster’s epicentre remains difficult.
Tibetan advocacy groups have questioned China’s casualty figures and called for more information. Beijing has rejected claims that it is underreporting deaths, saying the release of information has been “open, transparent and timely”.
A maniac was shot dead by police in the heart of Times Square Monday after she stabbed two people, one fatally, and confronted cops while wildly waving two knives and threatening to kill them, the NYPD said.
The caught-on-camera mayhem erupted in the Crossroads of the World after Pamela Cisneros, 49, randomly knifed a man and a woman in a 20-second span near West 41st Street and Seventh Avenue just before 4:30 p.m., cops said.
Officers found Cisneros a block away behind an NYPD substation, waving two knives at them, according to sources and harrowing footage of the confrontation.
The knife-wielding suspect approaches NYPD officers in Times Square after allegedly stabbing two people near West 43rd Street and 7th Avenue. Obtained by the NY Post
Cops spoke to the woman for four minutes and gave her “numerous commands” to drop the knives, but she refused, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a press conference on Monday night.
“I’m not dropping anything, I would rather kill both of you. I will kill you,” Cisneros told cops during the encounter, Tisch said.
Officers discharged several tasers at Cisneros, but they “proved to be ineffective,” and she continued charging toward officers with the knives, according to Tisch.
Two officers then opened fire, striking the Cisneros, who had a known history of mental illness with the department. She was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital.
The unprovoked stabbings and subsequent shooting all occured in roughly 20 minutes and sent panicked tourists and commuters scrambling for safety.
Two officers then opened fire, striking the Cisneros, who had a known history of mental illness with the department. She was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital.
The unprovoked stabbings and subsequent shooting all occured in roughly 20 minutes and sent panicked tourists and commuters scrambling for safety.
The knife-wielding woman then continued up to 42nd Street and fatally stabbed a 32-year-old woman in the abdomen in an “unprovoked attack,” the commissioner told reporters.
Multiple videos posted to social media captured Cisneros, who was wearing a pink shirt, jeans, and a crossbody purse, then flailing the weapons in front of police and a large crowd of onlookers.
She was shot after she began hobbling towards the cops with the knives.
“Oh sh-t, Oh sh-t,” terrified pedestrians yelled as they ran for cover and officers began attending to the knife-wielding woman.
The NYPD said the suspect’s two knives were recovered.
A worker delivering a package in the area recalled coming out of a building and seeing crowds hurriedly fleeing west — before he noticed a victim on the ground.
“It was a man … he was lying on the floor and there was blood on him. The police were tending to him. I asked tourist what happened and she said there was a Mexican lady and she stabbed two people.”
“It’s crazy. Why was she having two knives- those were kitchen knives. That’s crazy.”
Hassan Abdallah, 41, who works at a fruit cart stand on 41st Street and Seventh Avenue, witnessed a woman tend to a stabbing victim, who appeared to be her husband.
“I heard a lady screaming and then people were running like crazy. I went outside [the cart]. I saw an old guy, like 60, Asian. He was standing, holding his back,” Abdallah said.
“He got stabbed. His wife was trying to stop the bleeding. She was using a book or some paper, then someone gave her a scarf. I gave him a paper towel. His wife told him to lay on the floor.”
Cisneros has a documented history of mental illness with the NYPD, with one incident in 2018 and another in 2019. She has no previous arrests, the top cop continued.
The shooting was caught on police body cameras, and an internal investigation into the shooting is underway, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at the press conference
The incident is not believed to be terrorism-related. A motive is not yet known.
“This was an extraordinarily dangerous situation unfolding in the heart of Times Square, the Crossroads of the World, at any given moment, there are thousands of New Yorkers, commuters, tourists, families, workers, moving through these streets,” Tisch told reporters.
Brands like Uniqlo and Muji have rapidly expanded in India
India’s commerce minister Piyush Goyal led the country’s largest-ever business delegation to Japan last week in a bid to expand trade and investment ties between the two countries. His visit came as Japan’s deepening push into Asia’s third largest economy has become increasingly more apparent.
If you visit a shopping mall or a high street in Mumbai, Delhi or Bengaluru, it’s hard to miss the growing number of Japanese consumer brands that have set up shop across India.
Apparel giants Uniqlo and Muji and premium sneakers company Onitsuka Tiger have been around for a while, but are rapidly expanding.
Niche players are also here – Nitori, a Japanese furniture maker, entered the market recently, while convenience store chain Lawson is on its way, with a plan to reportedly open 10,000 stores by 2050 in India, starting with Mumbai.
It’s not just retail. At a time when foreign lenders have been exiting their Indian bank portfolios, Japanese banks are aggressively bidding for Indian financial assets.
MUFG Bank – Japan’s largest bank – closed a deal to buy 20% of Indian shadow lender Shriram Finance for $4.4bn last year in what was the biggest ever foreign investment in India’s financial sector.
Last year also saw Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) becoming the largest shareholder in India’s Yes Bank with a 24.22% stake.
Japan Inc is now the largest contributor to India’s booming ecosystem of global capability centres (GCCs) in the Asia Pacific.
More than 100 Japanese firms operate these GCCs in the country, according to a recent Deloitte report. GCCs are offshore innovation hubs of multinationals that perform business critical functions such as R&D, corporate strategy and artificial intelligence development among a plethora of other key jobs.
“Japanese companies are having to look to India for growth. With the local population declining for the past 16-17 years there isn’t just a slowdown in domestic demand, but a permanent shrinking of the market,” Vipul Nath Jindal, Founder of Next Bharat Ventures, an impact fund backed by Suzuki Motor Corporation, which recently announced a $200mn fund in India, told the BBC.
At the same time, Japan’s traditional markets for expansion have become increasingly less attractive, he says.
“Investment into China has fallen sharply amid geopolitical tensions and changing economic dynamics, the US market is more challenging because of tariffs and domestic competition, and the market size of other Southeast Asian economies is limited.”
Against this backdrop, India has become a natural target market for Japanese companies to drive long-term business growth.
Economic ties between the countries gathered pace at a government-to-government level when they signed an agreement to liberalise trade nearly a decade-and-a-half ago.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, he elevated the relationship to a “special strategic and global partnership”, setting a target of doubling the number of Japanese companies in India and launching marquee projects like India’s first bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, built using Japanese Shinkansen technology.
But now, it is Japanese private firms that are driving business expansion in this latest investment up-cycle.
At a landmark summit in July held during Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s first official visit to Delhi, Japanese companies announced $12.5bn in investments through some 120 agreements in sectors ranging from semiconductors to green energy. And Goyal has said Japan could prematurely meet its target of investing 10 trillion yen in the country.
Beyond the large corporations, several Japanese small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) are also actively looking at tapping the Indian market, says Jindal.
Hamamatsu City – where companies like Suzuki, Honda and Yamaha were founded and which has one of the highest concentrations of manufacturing SMEs in Japan – recently set up the Hamamatsu India Committee to explore how the city’s small companies could expand into India.
The rising interest in India has accompanied a fall in net Japanese investment in China which, as Toshiro Nishizaewa of the University of Tokyo wrote recently, is a reflection of “Japanese firms’ autonomous market diversification strategies – a commercially driven reallocation of capital rather than a policymaker-led geopolitical shift from China to India”.
But Japanese firms aren’t abandoning China en masse. What they are doing is “reducing concentration risk after several years of supply chain disruptions and geopolitical tensions”, Shruti Pandalai, India Chair at the Sydney-based Lowy Institute think tank, told the BBC.
India acts as a hedge against China-related risks, but there is also a growing overlap between Tokyo’s economic security priorities and Delhi’s manufacturing ambitions, which has strengthened the relationship despite significant political turnover in Tokyo, she says.
“With each successive government the targets have risen rather than fallen. That suggests the relationship has moved beyond leader-level diplomacy and become embedded in bureaucratic, corporate and strategic planning on both sides.”
Army personnel have resorted to using explosives to blast into the hillside to reach the trapped workers
The families of more than 600 workers believed to be trapped in a vast network of mud-filled tunnels along Nepal’s Trishuli River are clinging to hope their loved ones can be found alive.
Rescuers continued battling to reach them on Monday, using explosives to blast into the hillside before pumping air into the Trishuli-3A site – fearing a critical window to reach survivors is closing.
“I wish we could find him. I wish he would come home,” Anushila Bhandari, wife of Aurus Bhandari, a 33-year-old engineer missing on a project site, told BBC Nepali.
It comes as the death toll from the flood disaster on the Nepal-Tibet border reached 939, according to the country’s disaster management authority.
The agency also revised its estimate of the number of missing to 3,925, of whom 592 are foreign nationals.
Roughly one in seven missing people are believed to be workers at the hydropower plants. Nepalese Prime Minister Balendra Shah said on Monday that 279 people had been rescued from the sites.
The rescue operation is being spearheaded by an international team made up of Chinese and Nepalese military personnel, while experts from India, Korea and Australia are also involved.
“I still have a 50% hope that he is alive because there is an oxygen system inside,” Sita Pandey, whose husband was working in the plant when the floods hit, told Nepalese daily Kantipur.
Nepal relies heavily on hydropower and has spent years developing the projects along its mountainous river systems. At least 11 projects either completed or under construction were damaged in the floods, authorities said.
Rescuers began pumping air into a tunnel over the weekend, but the families of those trapped say that should have been done earlier.
A team was able to get into a tunnel leading to one hydropower plant earlier on Monday, but withdrew after finding no one there.
“The longer it takes, the more our hope dies. This operation must move much faster because every second is meaningful to us,” Jiban Khadka, whose relative is also trapped inside the plant, told Kantipur.
“It’s a frustratingly slow operation,” Khadka added.
Rescue operations had been “intensified”, Nepalese leader Shah said, noting that the floods were “not an ordinary” event.
“This incident indicates that the risks we face in the Himalayan region are increasing alongside climate change.
“It is now time for us to strongly raise with the international community the issue of the disasters we are experiencing as a result of climate change,” Shah wrote in a Facebook post late on Monday.
Another family member anxiously awaiting news is Priya Kharel, whose brother Milan was working as an engineer in the Upper Trishuli-1 plant when the floods hit.
“Those who returned from the hydropower site said there were people inside the tunnel,” she told BBC News Nepali. “So there is hope that if the army reaches them quickly, they can be saved.”
Australian engineer Arnold Dix, who has been helping Nepalese authorities with the underground search operations remotely, said rescuers had been struggling to find the tunnels.
“The actual signature of them has gone – everything is just missing. It looks like a lunar landscape,” he told BBC Radio 4’s World at One.
Once rescuers knew where the power stations were, Dix said they could then decide the best way to access them, which typically involves digging and “blasting boulders”.
“There’s boulders bigger than houses. I’ve never seen that before in my life. It’s just an extraordinary operation,” the former head of the International Tunnelling Association said.
He said he still has some hope for those trapped underground, given the protection the subterranean environment might have offered from the deluge above.
Only 4% of the 900 bodies that have been found so far have been identified, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Health told BBC Nepali.
In Chitwan, a district far downstream from where the floods first hit, makeshift burials were taking place after the Himalayan nation’s river systems brought nearly 300 dead bodies to its banks.
US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has submitted his resignation after about 18 months in the role.
His departure was confirmed by CBS, the BBC’s US media partner, which reported it came after months of conflict between him and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The youngest-ever army secretary has often been referred to as President Donald Trump’s “drone guy”.
Driscoll, 41, has been “highly effective” in advancing Trump’s agenda “to Make America Strong Again” and provided “outstanding leadership” during military operations, the White House said in a statement given to CBS.
The BBC has contacted the White House, Pentagon and Army for comment.
Driscoll is the latest in a string of recent high-profile military leaders to depart, including Navy Secretary John Phelan who abruptly quit in April.
Other notable departures include Army Chief of Staff Randy George, Army Gen David Hodne and Maj Gen William Green.
Since entering the Pentagon, Hegseth has fired more than a dozen senior military officers, including the chief of naval operations and the Air Force’s vice-chief of staff.
The details of the behind-the-scenes friction between Driscoll and Hegseth are unclear but CBS notes that the army secretary is good friends with George, who was reportedly asked by Hegseth to resign.
The post of army secretary is the top civilian leader of the US Army, directing active duty troops, along with the National Guard and reserve soldiers.
Driscoll previously served in the Army and was an officer in 2007 before leading a cavalry platoon and deploying to Iraq for several months in 2009.
As army secretary, Driscoll became known as Trump’s “drone guy” due to his embrace of emerging battlefield technologies.
HE once rubbed shoulders with A-Listers and you couldn’t open your phone without seeing his face on your social media feed.
But the shine appears to have come off the man known as Salt Bae – famed for his outrageously expensive golden steaks – as he is rocked by controversies and his businesses are hemorrhaging millions of pounds.
Credit: Newsflash
His spectacular rise saw him go from a Turkish butcher to a global celebrity almost overnight – all thanks to viral power of his sprinkling salt pose.
Stars including David Beckham, Leonardo DiCaprio and other A-listers flocked to his restaurants for the food and the spectacle – with diners paying up to £1,450 for gold-coated Tomahawk steak.
But his fame has since been hit by a string of controversies, legal battles and complaints from unhappy diners.
PR expert Nick Ede believes the problem is that Salt Bae’s fame was built around a viral novelty – and simply couldn’t be sustained.
He said: “He was merely just a Turkish chef, who loved his food, his meat, though he was never a fantastic chef like Gordon Ramsay or Jamie Oliver for example.
“Salt Bae was doing one thing, and when it blew up and people became enthralled by the pouring of salt on their meat by him, it became a novelty, which eventually, as with most novelties, they wear off.
“The fame went to his head.”
Salt Bae somehow got onto the pitch after Argentina‘s victory over France and chased players for photographs and was seen handling the World Cup trophy.
Lionel Messi also appeared visibly uncomfortable when Bae tried to get his attention.
The stunt sparked worldwide ridicule and raised questions over how he had gained access to the pitch.
Ede told The Sun: “When he went onto the pitch at the World Cup final in Qatar he acted like he was some sort of demi God, mingling among the likes of Messi and Mbappe.
“He clearly thought he was more elevated than he was and this sent ripples around the world.”
There was no repeat of the stunt at this year’s World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico.
Instead, the tournament passed without Salt Bae becoming part of the main football story – with him posting an Instagram video of himself watching from the sidelines.
His troubles have not been confined to football.
Salt Bae, whose real name is Nusret Gökçe, has faced a string of lawsuits from former employees in the US.
Workers have alleged issues including tip-sharing, unpaid overtime and poor working conditions.
One case was settled for $230,000 in 2021, while further claims followed.
Then in December last year, he lost a two-year legal battle over the word “SALT”.
He had tried to stop a rival from registering the trademark in Britain, arguing the word was synonymous with his brand.
Though his challenge was rejected, handing another blow to the celebrity chef.
TOWIE star Gemma Collins famously revealed she felt “sick” after splashing £1,450 at his London restaurant.
The reality star had enjoyed a night out at the Knightsbridge venue with boyfriend Rami Hawash in 2021.
Salt Bae himself sliced into the 24-carat gold-covered tomahawk before sprinkling salt over it in his trademark pose.
But the gargantuan bill left Collins in “utter shock”.
She later admitted she felt “a bit sick” the next morning when she thought about how much she had spent.
Collins said: “I went a bit over the top, but the only way I can justify it was that I haven’t been on holiday this year.
“Yes, we had 24 carat gold steak…I felt a bit sick.
“It was an amazing experience, I would have paid that to meet him anyway because I love him, and it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.
“But I started to feel really bad the next day because there are people starving in the world. I just started feeling really bad about it all.”
The London restaurant has since become a symbol of the wider problems facing his empire.
Its gold-covered steak has vanished from the menu, although diners can still expect eye-watering prices.
A wagyu striploin has cost £680, while a giant tomahawk has been priced at £630.
The Knightsbridge site was also reported to have turned off its heating in 2024 to save energy.
That was despite the restaurant continuing to serve steaks costing hundreds of pounds.
The company said it was improving energy efficiency and had also limited lighting and the use of its air curtain.
Its finances now paint an even bleaker picture.
Nusr-Et’s London site recorded a £5.4million loss last year, according to accounts reported in 2025.
Five of the group’s international sites have also closed.
Its US operations were revalued by £6.6million after what the company called “exceptional expenses”.
The restaurant has also faced a wave of poor reviews.
Tripadvisor is packed with one-star ratings from unhappy customers, while critics have also taken aim at the food.
One critic described the restaurant as a “vibeless business lounge” and called it “categorically a bad restaurant”.
It has an average rating of 2.9 stars from 408 reviews – with 183 one star reviews, and 162 five star reviews.
Former staff have also made allegations about working conditions and treatment inside the business.
VLADIMIR Putin is afraid that ending his relentless war on Ukraine without victory could cost him his life, insiders say.
If the deranged dictator does not end his war with the fortress belt Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine, he reportedly told his inner circle he would be killed.
According to The Economist, petrified Putin told Kremlin cronies that if he does not win control of the Donbas: “They will hang me.”
Senior allies of the president feel the invasion of Ukraine has failed, dragging out for nearly five years and destroying the country’s economy.
Ukraine’s recent “long-range sanctions” blasting online retailers’ warehouses and oil refineries have caused devastating petrol shortages and brought the cost of war home to Putin’s subjects.
The ageing tyrant has accused Ukraine of opening a “Pandora’s box” with its attacks on Russian Amazon-equivalent Wildberries, after weeks of glum silence on the strikes.
But Kremlin sources say Putin is stuck at a dead end and has chosen a dangerous way out.
The desperate dictator is at risk of escalating his campaign against his neighbour by lashing out at Nato.
Last week CIA boss John Ratcliffe flew to Moscow on a secret flight, reportedly to warn the Russian leader off hitting out at the West.
And Putin was humiliated on the world stage today as Narendra Modi told him to stop his brutal war on Ukraine.
But Kremlin sources say Putin is stuck at a dead end and has chosen a dangerous way out.
The desperate dictator is at risk of escalating his campaign against his neighbour by lashing out at Nato.
Last week CIA boss John Ratcliffe flew to Moscow on a secret flight, reportedly to warn the Russian leader off hitting out at the West.
And Putin was humiliated on the world stage today as Narendra Modi told him to stop his brutal war on Ukraine.
The assault marks a fifth consecutive day of drone strikes, resulting in at least several fatalities and injuries across Ukraine
Photos showing the aftermath of the Russia-Ukraine War. (Photos: AP, Reuters)
Russia has launched another overnight attack on Kyiv, with Ukrainian air defences shooting down drones before ballistic missiles targeted the capital, according to journalists from the Kyiv Independent on the ground. Several large explosions were heard across the city early on 1 September. One blast was strong enough to trigger car alarms, while the sound of air-defence interceptors could also be heard.
Video footage showed Russian Kalibr cruise missiles being launched from Novorossiysk.
The latest attack followed a fifth consecutive day of near-continuous Russian drone attacks on Kyiv. Russian strikes elsewhere in Ukraine killed at least seven people and injured another 45 over the previous day, according to local authorities.
Russian Attacks Resume in Kyiv
As night fell on 31 August, Ukrainian air defences again engaged Russian drones over central Kyiv. Several drones were reported to have been shot down. Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said fires had been reported across the city.
A blaze broke out in the Darnytskyi district after a drone was shot down, while a wooded area caught fire in Solomyanskyi district. Drone debris was also found at two locations in the Holosiivskyi district.
At about 22:17 local time, a “very loud” explosion was heard in central Kyiv, according to Kyiv Independent Deputy Chief Editor Toma Istomina.
The Kyiv City Military Administration lifted an air-raid alert at 22:27, after it had been in place since 19:46.
Ballistic Missiles Target Kyiv
Another alert was issued at 23:32 and lifted at 00:15 on 1 September. A further alert followed at 02:10, as Ukraine’s Air Force warned that Kyiv was being targeted by several missiles.
Four people, including two children in the Solomyanskyi district, were injured, the Kyiv military administration said.
Dozens of explosions were then heard across Kyiv between 02:23 and 02:34, shortly after the latest air-raid alert was issued, Istomina reported. “This is the biggest missile attack on Kyiv in a while,” Kyiv Independent Editor-in-Chief Olga Rudenko said as the explosions continued.
Top American AI companies are feeding Beijing’s beast and the US military at the same time, a longtime China hawk is warning.
Four major providers of data for AI models — which help collate, label and package the vast troves of info for Anthropic, Google, Meta, OpenAI and the Pentagon — are also quietly working for China’s AI labs on the side, according to a new report.
“America is in an AI race with the Chinese Communist Party,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told The Post.
Multiple AI data companies are quietly selling information to Chinese AI labs. Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images
“We cannot spend billions trying to protect our technological advantage while American companies package up our best human expertise and sell it to companies tied to the Chinese military.”
None of the companies responded to The Post’s requests for comment.
President Trump raged at “Meet the Press” anchor Kristen Welker Sunday for casting aspersions on his endorsement record — saying she should be reprimanded by the FCC.
Welker said Trump had “mixed results” with his highly coveted endorsement in GOP primary elections this cycle, but Trump lashed out at the claim and urged FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr to take the “Threat to our Country very seriously.”
“How can anyone be allowed to say this, working for freely given Public Airwaves? Results are attached. Because of this purposeful inaccuracy, she will be reported to the FCC for rebuke or punishment,” Trump bristled on Truth Social. “Unfortunately, she is not the only one.”
President Donald Trump speaks during an event to present the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to Artemis II crew members on Friday, August 28, 2026, at Johnson Space Center in Houston. AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein
NBC News runs a network of local broadcast stations that get FCC licenses. The government issues those licenses because there is limited public airwave spectrum.
“Kristen is one of the best in the business, and we stand by her,” a spokesperson for NBC told The Post about Trump’s broadside against her.
Carr has threatened to turn up the heat on broadcast networks that he feels are biased.
The Trump administration has previously targeted ABC News, triggering a lawsuit.
Trump had made some 313 endorsements and had a 96% success rate, according to Ballotpedia. Many of those endorsements were in primaries that weren’t very competitive.
But even in highly competitive races, Trump’s endorsement usually proved to be critical, such as the Texas, Louisiana, and South Carolina Senate races.
Still, Trump had multiple notable setbacks, including his endorsement of retiring scandal-plagued Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), Amir Hassan in Michigan, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), Randy Feenstra in Iowa, Burt Jones in Georgia, Mike Lindell in Minnesota, and more.
Trump noted that he had a 100% success rate in GOP Senate primaries and 98% success rate in House GOP primaries. He contended that many of the candidates he backed “were not even given a shot of winning until I Endorsed.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has hit back at Donald Trump by installing a large sign on Canada’s shoreline with the message: “Lake Ontario. Now and Always.”
The US president signed an executive order on Thursday seeking to change its name to Lake America and has shared a series of AI-generated videos about the lake that straddles both countries.
“Long before President Trump, this lake was called Lake Ontario. Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario,” Ford said.
The war of words was triggered after trade talks collapsed, with the US imposing new 50% tariffs on $20bn (C$28bn) of Canadian goods. Canada will implement “dollar for dollar” counter-tariffs next month.
Trump said the decree was effective immediately as he signed the order to rename it Lake America.
While he has broad discretion over how the US recognises landmarks, other countries are not required to follow.
On Saturday, Google said it had changed the name on its maps for users in the US.
“Since we update Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources, which is GNIS [Geographic Names Information System] for the US, people using Maps in the US will see ‘Lake America’, those in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario’ and those outside of the US and Canada will see both names,” the tech firm said in a blog post.
This mirrors how Google names the Gulf of Mexico for users after Trump declared it was called the Gulf of America in 2025.
Canadian officials have dismissed Trump’s move.
On Saturday, Trump also posted several AI-generated videos on social media, with one showing him kicking over a Lake Ontario sign and replacing it with one that says: “Welcome to Lake America.”
Another video depicted a flock of Canada geese sporting the US president’s trademark hair and holding rifles as they patrolled the shoreline of a newly named Lake America.
Ford said Trump’s renaming of the lake was because he “didn’t like Ontario and Canada standing up for ourselves”.
Standing in front of the newly unveiled Lake Ontario sign, Ford added: “Just in case President Trump or anyone else forgets, we’ve set up this sign to remind them, it’s Lake Ontario, now and forever.”
It echoes Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s previous response to the row, insisting “things must be called by their name, and this lake is called Lake Ontario – today and forever”.
At least eight people have died and 18 others are still missing after a passenger boat capsized off northern Cyprus, the head of the Turkish administration there has said.
Ünal Üstel, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Turkish republic on Cyprus, said the ferry had been carrying 259 passengers and eight crew members when it began taking on water after departing the coastal town of Kyrenia on Sunday.
The ship’s captain and seven crew members have been detained as part of an investigation into “how this tragedy occurred”, Üstel wrote on social media.
Officials say the vast majority of those on board have been rescued. A search and rescue operation with Turkish authorities is under way.
The boat has now sunk, and the authorities are attempting to recover its black box recorder to establish what happened.
The privately owned ferry left the popular holiday resort of Kyrenia at about 12:30 local time (09:30 GMT).
Üstel said the boat had been scheduled to travel to Turkey on Saturday, but had been delayed due to poor weather conditions.
He told Turkish media outlet TRT that the boat was hit by two waves before it capsized.
While the captain of the vessel was trying to recover from the first wave, a second wave hit and it began taking on water, he told the outlet.
Rescue boats and helicopter around the sinking catamaran close to the port of Kyrenia
Helicopters and coastguard boats have been dispatched to the scene, while ambulances have been stationed on the beach ready to receive rescued passengers.
Üstel wrote on social media that the “priority right now is human life”, adding that security forces, rescue teams and health officials were all on the scene.
He added the disaster will be thoroughly investigated and “even the slightest negligence will be uncovered”.
“No one will be spared, regardless of who they are, who is found to be at fault or responsible,” Üstel said.
Erhan Arikli, the transport minister of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), which is only recognised by Turkey, told local media that 100 passengers had been taken to shore.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent his condolences to Turkish Cypriots and said efforts to reach those who were still missing “continue uninterrupted”.
“Immediately after the accident, we launched extensive search-and-rescue operations in co-operation with the authorities of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,” he said at a military ceremony on Sunday.
Mustafa Koc saved around 65 people with his boat after the vessel capsized. He told the BBC that he felt the crew should have waited until the sea was calm.
“It wasn’t safe for them,” he said. “The sea was quite choppy.”
Koc added: “People died. It’s not right.”
He said the boat had arrived in Kyrenia on Saturday and “had some damage in the front”.
The ferry – a high-speed 40m long, 10m wide Filo Jet vessel – sails under the flag of Turkey, according to Marine Traffic.
Filo Denizcilik, the company which operates the capsized passenger boat, said it was “deeply saddened by the tragic accident”.
DONALD Trump has posted an AI video of Iran’s “Forbidden Island” after reigniting his war by launching strikes for the first time in a month.
“Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!!” the US President wrote on X, alongside a clip showing the hub, which handles about 90 percent of the country’s crude oil exports, exploding.
Donald Trump has reignited his war with Iran by launching strikes on the twisted regime for the first time in a monthCredit: Splash
It was not clear if his post was a threat to Kharg Island – or if an attack was taking place.
Oil operations have not stopped, according to Hamid Bovard, CEO of the National Iranian Oil Company, as cited by Nournews.
Blasting Trump’s post as “laughable,” he said: “Conditions in Kharg are calm and appropriate.”
Attacking Kharg, where contractors are currently rebuilding and modernising storage tanks and jetties, would severely disrupt its energy trade and put huge pressure on its economy.
It comes as the US targeted rocket launchers in the Strait of Hormuz late last night amid reported intelligence that the Revolutionary Guard Corps were preparing to deploy sea mines in the crucial waterway.
Forces had spent weeks clearing sea mines from the highly contested strait to allow for the free movement of vessels patrolling the international shipping route.
Several major explosions were heard on Larak Island which sits on the strait.
Two Iranian rocket launchers were destroyed in the attacks, according to an anonymous US official.
Iran said several of its fighters had been killed and badly wounded in the blasts, and vowed to meet the aggression with a “response and punishment”.
Iranian state TV then broadcast footage of ballistic missiles being fired by Iran at US bases in Jordan.
Neither the US or Jordan have confirmed the attacks.
The last US strikes on Iran came in late July as the war has reached a stalemate.
Trump has changed tack in recent weeks, announcing crippling plans to launch a crushing “Operation Economic Outcast” against Iran.
THE fervent group of fans supporting Lindsay Clancy at her bombshell murder trial is creating a serious problem for the American justice system, a leading expert has told The U.S. Sun.
As the world waits for a potential verdict in the troubling case in Massachusetts next week, veteran journalist Dave Wedge cannot shake the feeling that he has worryingly seen this all before.
Supporters of Lindsay Clancy have flooded outside Plymouth Superior Court during her trialCredit: Getty
Wedge’s exhaustive new book, Blizzard of Lies, delves deep into the now-infamous Karen Read murder trial of 2025, which he believes is beginning to bear an eerily striking similarity to Clancy’s attempt to beat a triple murder charge following the deaths of her three children.
Read was acquitted of killing former boyfriend and police officer John O’Keefe, who was found dead outside a party in Canton, near Boston, in January 2022.
The case tore the town apart, with supporters of the Bentley University accounting professor flooding the streets dressed in pink and arriving with pom-poms, deck chairs and signs.
Some of O’Keefe’s family, meanwhile, were angrily confronted in regrettable scenes.
Wedge has seen something similar unfold outside Plymouth Superior Court over the past few weeks.
Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, an old friend of Wedge’s, argues she is not criminally responsible for murder because she was suffering from undiagnosed postpartum psychosis.
His confidence in her claims has inspired hundreds of supporters to flood the area outside the court and back the 36-year-old.
“What people are seeing at Lindsay Clancy, it’s some people around here are referring to it as the Karen Read effect,” Boston-based Wedge said.
“Those people were out there every day at the Karen retrial, both trials, but even louder and bigger.
“At the second trial, it was like a football tailgate.”
Wedge thinks the demonstrations affected the atmosphere surrounding Read’s highly-anticipated trial, but wonders if jurors in Clancy’s case will think the same.
“They’re out there with lawn chairs and bouncy houses and grills and TVs and generators and sitting outside the court cheering her on every time she comes in, screaming and yelling at the O’Keefe family and the witnesses,” he said.
“And the jury walked through this every day. So I have to believe that the jury at least knew that this was a big deal.
“When that verdict was read in the courtroom, the outside erupted in cheers.
“The Lindsay Clancy people are kind of mimicking that. And I’m told that a lot of them are the same people. There’s a lot of those same Free Karen folks that are now out there wearing pink T-shirts for Lindsay Clancy.
“So it’s become a sort of movement, you know?”
Wedge said there is nothing wrong with peaceful activism, but warned that social-media movements can become problematic when unproven theories are treated as fact or victims’ families are targeted.
“I’m all for free protest,” he said. “But when you’re shouting things at victims and being disrespectful of the families of people who’ve lost their loved ones, that’s where you lost me.”
That tension was visible during Clancy’s trial, where hundreds of supporters dressed in pink gathered outside Plymouth Superior Court for a peaceful “Stand in Peace for Lindsay” rally.
Organizers said they wanted to create a calm atmosphere while drawing attention to postpartum mental health.
The trial has also demonstrated the growing challenge courts face in an age when virtually everyone carries a smartphone.
Wedge pointed to a recent attempt by Reddington to call former McLean Hospital employee Emily Thorndike as a witness.
Thorndike had become known for TikTok videos discussing her experiences working at the hospital.
The defense wanted her to discuss staffing and treatment conditions at McLean, where Clancy spent four days shortly before the killings.
But Thorndike had left the hospital about a year before Clancy was admitted and had followed the case online.
Judge William Sullivan questioned whether her opinions belonged before the jury, saying, “This is not TripAdvisor.”
He suggested the defense could instead obtain staffing records or call someone who worked at McLean during Clancy’s hospitalization.
Wedge said the episode illustrates the larger challenge facing the American justice system.
“This has become a circus,” he said. “And it’s become social-media fueled.”
In previous generations, keeping jurors away from outside influence largely meant avoiding newspapers, television reports or conversations about a case.
Today, Wedge said, that task is much harder.
“Now everyone’s got this in their hands and it’s 24/7,” he said. “You don’t even have to go on news sites. Your friends are sending memes. It’s on Facebook. It’s everywhere you go. You can’t escape it.”
Massachusetts has become a particularly visible stage for this phenomenon.
The state has a long history of high-profile criminal cases, from the Whitey Bulger investigation, to the Charles Stuart case and Read’s prosecution.
Wedge believes the region’s strong sense of community can contribute to the intensity surrounding controversial cases.
“We’re very tribal people here in Boston,” he said. “We protect each other, we look out for each other.”
That loyalty, however, can quickly boil over when people believe someone they support is being treated unfairly.
The Read case, according to Wedge, may have ignited anger among her most fervent supporters.
They watched their campaign grow from courtroom demonstrations into a national movement, ultimately celebrating after Read was acquitted of the most serious charges.
Wedge thinks it set a dangerous precedent, making people believe activism and public pressure can seriously influence a legal outcome.
“I think people saw success,” he said. “They saw that what they did worked. They saw that they were out there making noise and having their voices heard.
“And Karen Read won her case and was freed. So I think it gave people a feeling of control, right or wrong, whether that’s accurate or not, that’s how these people feel.”
OUSTED dictator Nicolas Maduro has shared new photos from a US jail with the ex-president smirking and flashing up peace signs.
US forces seized the Venezuelan leader, 63, in a daring special ops raid earlier this year and threw him behind bars on drug trafficking charges – where he has languished ever since.
Clad in Nike trainers and tracksuits the tyrant flashed two peace signs to his fansCredit: Instagram/Nicolás Maduro
His wife Cilia Flores, 69, has also been imprisoned in the New York jail after being captured during the dramatic night-time raid on their compound in Caracas.
Sporting a grey prison track suit and Nike trainers, the tyrant looked slimmed down in the pictures.
Maduro grins at the camera, clutching his glasses in one hand and flashing a peace sign with the other.
“I am sending these photos as a small gift to all my grandchildren, to the boys and girls, and to all the good people who love us,” he wrote on Telegram.
“I want you to know that we are standing firm, with our hearts full of your love,” he added.
The photos emerged on Sunday – but camera data suggests they were taken on June 25, a day after two devastating earthquakes decimated towns and killed more than 6,500 people in northern Venezuela.
“We will remain strong, calm and confident: God is with us. God will provide. Venezuela will rise again”, Maduro said online.
The deposed dictator has been running Venezuela since 2013 – and has close ties to Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin.
Now, both Maduro and his wife are locked inside a “jail within a jail”.
Prosecutors accuse the pair of collaborating with cartel kingpins to ship thousands of tons of cocaine into the US – claims which the couple vigorously deny.
“I am a decent man. I am still president of my country”, insisted Maduro at his hearing in January.
The ousted tyrant joked his way through a court appearance in July – telling his lawyer he looked “very serious”.
It was the third hearing since his abduction at the start of the year with the trial on the narco-terrorism charges scheduled for June 1, 2027.
Canadian officials, including Premier Doug Ford, warned that a prolonged trade conflict could harm both economies, describing Trump’s actions as counterproductive.
US President Donald Trump ramped up his attacks against Canada on Sunday. Photo : AP
US President Donald Trump has told Canadian companies doing business with the US to move their headquarters and production facilities south of the border to avoid new tariffs, escalating a growing trade dispute with Canada. In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump said Canadian companies should relocate to the US “immediately”, arguing that they would not face tariffs if they moved their operations.
“Let all Canadian Companies that are doing business with America move to the United States, immediately,” he wrote. “Many of them are Companies that moved out years ago due to stupid U.S. Leadership. When you move back, there are no TARIFFS!”
His comments came after Canadian officials warned that Ottawa was prepared for a prolonged trade dispute with Washington.
Trump has announced tariffs of up to 50% on some Canadian goods, including dairy products and lumber. Canada has responded with tariffs on US steel, aluminium and other exports.
The new US duties are due to take effect in 2027.
Trump Calls Canada ‘One of the Worst Abusers’
In another post, Trump described Canada as “one of the Worst Abusers”, despite the country being the US’s second-largest trading partner. The US and Canada conduct nearly $900bn in cross-border economic activity each year, according to the US trade representative.
“I don’t want Canadian cars, I don’t want Canadian parts, I don’t want Canadian anything,” Trump wrote. “They’ve been ripping us off for decades, and it’s going to stop.”
He credited his tariff policies with helping to save the US automobile industry. However, many American manufacturers continue to rely on parts and systems made in other countries, including Canada.
Ford earlier this year thanked the Trump administration for exempting some vehicle parts from tariffs, but it remains unclear how the latest measures will affect the US car industry.
Canada Warns of Impact of Trade War
The latest escalation follows a series of increasingly tense exchanges between Trump and Canadian officials, including Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Ford warned on Sunday that a prolonged trade war could cause serious damage to both economies.
“Everyone’s feeling bullied by President Trump, and this is the worst thing you could do for the American economy,” he told ABC’s This Week. “I just don’t see the purpose. It’s absolutely backwards.”
He also described Trump’s recent decision to direct US federal agencies to refer to Lake Ontario as “Lake America” as “something out of Saturday Night Live.” “No one is going to call it Lake America,” Ford said.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew also criticised the US president, saying: “I think Donald Trump is very weak. I think America is weaker around the world today than it was a year ago.”
Kinew added: “He’s about to get slaughtered in the midterms and the cost of living is the number one issue and he’s completely out of touch with the cost of living of Americans.”
The first committee meeting under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement is set to bring the three countries together for technical and operational discussions.
Mecca Joint Defence Agreement. File image/ANI
Pakistan is moving towards a larger military role in the Middle East and South Asia as Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia prepare for key defence discussions in Istanbul.
Field Marshal Asim Munir has arrived in Turkey ahead of the first committee meeting under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, which is scheduled for Monday. The meeting will focus on joint defence cooperation between the three countries.
Asim Munir In Istanbul For Trilateral Talks
Munir’s arrival in Istanbul comes ahead of a high-level meeting involving Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
The first committee meeting under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement is set to bring the three countries together for technical and operational discussions. The talks are expected to place trilateral defence cooperation at the centre of the partnership.
The Istanbul meeting follows the formalisation of what is being described as a historic defence triad involving Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
The three countries are set to discuss joint defence cooperation as they seek to strengthen military links under the agreement.
Pakistan’s New Defence Position
According to top intelligence sources, Pakistan is shifting away from traditional defence postures and positioning itself as a core military pillar across the Middle East and South Asia.
The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement has brought Pakistan’s armed forces into a framework with Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest military, and Saudi Arabia, described as the Gulf’s premier economic powerhouse.
The agreement also includes a collective defence clause under which an attack on one country is treated as an attack on all three.
This provision marks a different phase for Pakistan, according to the intelligence sources, as Islamabad seeks a more prominent role in regional security.
Turkey, Saudi Arabia And Pakistan’s Military Triangle
The emerging partnership combines different strengths of the three countries.
Turkey brings defence technology, while Saudi Arabia provides financial backing and Pakistan contributes military power. The arrangement is aimed at establishing a strong foothold for each country in the territories of the others.
The partnership therefore extends beyond political cooperation and focuses on building deeper military and strategic links between the three nations.
The Istanbul meeting is expected to provide a platform for discussions on the technical and operational aspects of this cooperation.
The SCO summit’s priorities include counter-terrorism, regional stability and coordination on cross-border threats.
PM Modi, Xi, Putin at SCO Summit 2025 (File Photo)
The 26th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit will be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, from August 31 to September 1, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping among the leaders attending the gathering.
Modi arrived in Kyrgyzstan on Sunday, August 30, to attend the summit and hold bilateral meetings with leaders on the sidelines. He was received at the airport by Kasymaliev Adylbek Aleshovich, chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers. A traditional Kyrgyz dance performance was also organised to welcome him.
Modi is visiting Kyrgyzstan at the invitation of President Sadyr Zhaparov for the 26th SCO Summit.
Modi To Meet SCO Leaders
PM Modi is expected to meet several SCO leaders, including Zhaparov and Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the sidelines of the summit, PTI reported.
In his departure statement on Saturday, Modi said he looked forward to advancing India’s vision for the region, based on “security, connectivity and opportunity”.
He also said India would work with SCO members towards a region free from “terrorism, separatism and extremism”.
Modi will also attend the opening ceremony of the 6th World Nomad Games.
He said the visit would strengthen India’s strategic partnerships in Central Asia, deepen its civilisational connect with the region and advance the shared pursuit of peace, stability and prosperity.
Xi Jinping Arrives In Kyrgyzstan
Chinese President Xi Jinping also arrived in Kyrgyzstan on Sunday to participate in the SCO summit, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
“I look forward to attending the SCO Bishkek Summit, working with all parties to revisit the 25-year development experience of the SCO, jointly discuss cooperation plans, create the future of the organisation,” Xi said after his arrival.
He said he looked forward to working with other members to “promote the continuous new development of the organisation”.
Xi is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with several SCO leaders during his visit.
His trip comes ahead of a busy September. He is widely expected to attend the BRICS summit in New Delhi on September 12-13 and later travel to the US for a summit meeting with President Donald Trump.
SCO Marks 25 Years
The 10-member SCO is marking 25 years since its founding in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
India and Pakistan became full members in 2017, followed by Iran in 2023 and Belarus in 2024.
Kyrgyzstan holds the rotating chair for 2026, with the main sessions being held at the Ala-Archa State Residence outside Bishkek. Leaders’ events run from August 30 to September 1, while the Council of Heads of State plenary is scheduled for September 1.
The summit theme is “25 Years of the SCO: Together Towards Sustainable Peace, Development and Prosperity.”
The IRGC said the operation targeted the King Hussein and Al Azraq military bases.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it attacked US military bases in Jordan. (File Photo/ AFP)
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it attacked US military bases in Jordan in retaliation for a US strike on Larak Island.
The IRGC said the operation targeted the King Hussein and Al Azraq military bases. Iranian state media reported that the attack was carried out under the name “Punishment of the Aggressor.”
The IRGC claimed its strikes “destroyed the technical and repair infrastructure, as well as the enemy fighter deployment sites.”
“Aggression and crimes will not solve the enemy’s desperation in attempting to weaken the Islamic Republic’s control over the Strait of Hormuz, and every attack will be met with even more devastating responses,” the statement said.
Why did the US strike Larak Island?
The reported attack came hours after US forces struck two IRGC rocket launchers on Larak Island, a strategically located Iranian island near the Strait of Hormuz.
“I can confirm that earlier today US forces struck two Iranian launchers on Larak Island. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into Strait of Hormuz,” a US official said, Reuters reported.
Following the US strike, the IRGC said several Iranian fighters and civilians were killed or wounded, according to Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB. The group did not give a specific casualty figure.
The IRGC vowed that Iran would respond to what it called US aggression, warning that further attacks would trigger more severe retaliation.
First US strike on Iran in more than a month
The Larak Island operation marked the first US military action against Iran in more than a month. The US last launched missiles at Iranian targets in late July.
Figures from Nepal and from Chinese authorities in charge of Tibet put the total number of missing at 3,048, with 768 confirmed deaths.
Nepal’s reconstruction bill could run into “billions of dollars”.
The number of people missing in the catastrophic flood that sliced through the border area between Nepal and Tibet exceeded 3,000 on Sunday, as rescuers searched for survivors.
Here are the latest developments after the tsunami-like disaster that struck the Himalayan region on Wednesday:
Deaths Climb
Figures from Nepal and from Chinese authorities in charge of Tibet put the total number of missing at 3,048, with 797 confirmed deaths.
Nepal says there are 2,502 people, including 592 foreigners, who are out of contact in the country. It reported an updated death count of 781 people on Sunday.
Tibet, an autonomous region of China, was largely inaccessible to foreign journalists, preventing independent reporting on the scale of the disaster in an area which has multiple villages.
China’s state broadcaster CCTV said on Sunday that 546 people were missing and 16 people had been killed.
Of those missing, 261 were foreign nationals, it said.
100 Trapped In Tunnels
More than 100 workers are believed to be trapped inside multiple hydropower tunnels.
The Nepali army inserted a pipe into one of the tunnels at the Trishuli 3A hydroelectric site late on Saturday and started sending air through it, Minister Sudan Gurung said.
But overnight rain and rising river waters hampered rescue efforts at that site, and Nepal’s disaster authorities urged rescue teams on Sunday to exercise caution.
Those trapped were among 933 missing workers from hydropower projects on the rivers where the torrent of icy debris swept down.
India, which has extensive experience in such rescues, has sent an 11-person specialised team. China has also sent a nine-person tunnel team to help.
New Lake
Hampering rescue operations on Sunday was the formation of a new lake near the Tibet border following a landslide 2.8 kilometres (1.74 miles) from a drained lake that in previous days had threatened rescue work.
After the landslide on Saturday evening “a new barrier lake is now forming”, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Rescue personnel near the Gyirong border port had been moved to safer areas while the Ministry of Emergency Management convened experts to assess and analyse the situation, CCTV said.
Reconstruction Could Cost ‘Billions’
Nepal’s reconstruction bill could run into “billions of dollars”, Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said.
“We will do loss and damage research and then we plan, but I am reaching out to our international community for support.”
Relatives Crowd Rescue Hub
At an army base in the Nepali town of Bidur, a key rescue hub, relatives crowded around lists of rescued people pasted on a wall.
“I have come here looking for my son,” said Kalka Sharda, scanning the list in desperation. “He was a labourer at the hydropower plant, but I can’t find his name, and the authorities are not saying anything.”
Australian Family ‘Elated’ Daughter Found
The Australian parents of a woman reported missing in devastating floods that struck Nepal said Sunday they were “elated” and relieved after their daughter was found safe and sound.
Cara Severino, 24, was found “safe and well” on Friday, her parents said.
Among those not accounted for are 42 Australians, many of whom were pilgrims visiting holy sites.
Climate Change
While the exact cause of the collapse is unclear, Nepal’s foreign minister warned on Saturday of the growing threat from climate change in the Himalayas.
The US Geological Survey said the disaster on Wednesday near the high-altitude China-Nepal border was caused by a glacial collapse that sent a torrent of debris downstream.
China’s state news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday that experts had said “a glacier on the southern slope of Lirung Peak in Nepal” fractured, triggering an ice-rock avalanche.
“The sudden glacial collapse and flash flood is a devastating reminder of how fragile these mountain environments can be,” UN climate chief Simon Steill said in a statement.
Aid Offers
As many as 93,000 people in Nepal are potentially affected by the disaster, according to the Red Cross.
Nepal appealed on Saturday for international financial assistance, as well as specialised rescue support, including heavy-lift drones, DNA testing kits, and body freezer storage units.
The United States and Canada said they would each provide around $3.6 million in humanitarian assistance.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei urged Muslim countries, particularly those in the Gulf, to unite against what he called their “real enemy” and said divisions among Muslims served the interests of their adversaries.
The message was published on Khamenei’s Telegram account for Islamic Unity Week, which marks the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.
A still image from undated archive footage released by Iranian media on August 24, 2026, shows Mojtaba Khamenei attending a meeting before he assumed the role of Iran’s Supreme Leader, at an unknown location. Pool via WANA/REUTERS TV/Handout via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
It called for Muslim unity, cooperation in various fields and mutual defence, saying anyone who creates divisions among Muslims, “knowingly or unknowingly,” helps Islam’s enemies.
It asked whether Palestinians would have been left “so helpless” if Muslims had been united.
Khamenei has not been seen in public since being injured in U.S.-Israeli airstrikes six months ago that launched the Iran war, killing his father and previous supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
His call for unity echoes a statement he made on Friday to Iranians, when he said he had banned actions that harm social cohesion and urged authorities to avoid “discouraging statements” that weaken national and public morale.
Khamenei specifically asked Gulf Arab rulers whether “rogues without identity” would have dared to covet their lands and possessions if the peoples and governments of the Gulf had been “united under the flag of Islam.”
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Gulf Arab monarchies have viewed Iran’s revolutionary ideology, including its anti-monarchic rhetoric and regional influence, as a threat to their political systems.
During the present conflict, Tehran has struck U.S. military facilities as well as other infrastructure in Gulf states, underscoring the tensions between Tehran and its Gulf neighbours.
“My emphatic and repeated recommendation to the rulers of Islamic countries, especially the countries of West Asia and the Gulf, is to identify your real enemy, understand his plan and confront it,” Khamenei said.
A firefighter works at a site of a Russian drone attack, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv region, Ukraine in this handout picture released August 29, 2026. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Kyiv region/Handout via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
Glass crackles as Liudmyla Polianychko walks through her shattered home outside the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where a Russian drone strike on an ammunition depot on Friday sparked blasts that killed 38 people and ravaged her neighbourhood.
Debris littered her young daughter’s bedroom. Charred artillery shells and belts of ammunition lie scattered across her carefully manicured lawn.
“But we’re alive, and thank god for that,” said the 48-year-old entrepreneur.
Polianychko was still cleaning up on Sunday after the deadliest Russian strike of the year, whose devastating effects President Volodymyr Zelenskiy blamed on official negligence.
Friday’s attack hit a military facility in the village of Myla that held artillery shells, mines, drones and other ammunition, he said, describing the storage of such items near civilian homes as a “crime”.
The strike set off secondary explosions, setting the quaint neighbourhood ablaze. Hundreds of people were evacuated.
On Sunday, Zelenskiy said first responders had extinguished most of the fires, but that contamination in the area was significant and the work would likely drag on.
Rescuers were still searching for four people reported missing, he added. SERIES OF EXPLOSIONS
Standing in a battered hallway of her home, Polianychko described hearing a series of blasts before being showered with glass. As she sheltered in the bathroom with her daughter, a wall collapsed on them.
Polianychko said she was unaware of the ammunition warehouse nearby.
“We didn’t think that there could be something like that. You can see all those unexploded shells and bullets,” she said of the debris on her lawn.
The strike was the second in two months on a Kyiv-area ammunition warehouse that sparked secondary blasts killing local residents. Zelenskiy said criminal cases have already been opened into the matter. WORSENING AIR ATTACKS ON KYIV
Friday’s attack was part of an extended Russian air campaign against Kyiv and the surrounding region.
Jet-powered drones have swarmed the city and nearby towns for four consecutive days, killing residents, damaging homes and upending daily life.
Russia has escalated its air war on Ukraine with increasing numbers of elusive ballistic missiles and the high-speed drones, which Kyiv lacks the air defences to shoot down.
On Sunday, Zelenskiy said Russia launched nearly 2,000 strike drones, more than 1,600 bombs, and 31 missiles at his country this week alone.
“We are seeking just responses to every Russian strike and crime,” he said. “They will certainly come.”
Oil prices were trading more than 2% higher on Monday after the U.S. attacked an Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz and drew retaliation from Tehran, as conflict in the Middle East extended into its sixth month.
Brent crude futures climbed $2.51, or 2.85%, to $90.61 a barrel as of 0241 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $85.53, up $2.13, or 2.55%.
Vessels in the Strait of Hormuz are visible near the beach of Bandar Abbas, Iran, August 28, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
U.S. forces struck two launchers on Iran’s Larak island in the Hormuz strait on Sunday, the first known American strikes on the Gulf nation since late July.
In response, Iran attacked two U.S. air bases in Jordan, Iranian media reported on Monday citing Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
“Looks like we are in another escalation phase. How long that lasts is impossible to determine. Could be days, could be weeks,” IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said.
Technical charts showed that if the conflict escalated and pushed WTI above resistance at $85.80 to $85.90 a barrel, it would open the way for further gains, initially to last week’s $87.69 high followed by July’s $93.50 high, Sycamore said.
Negotiations to end the conflict are at an impasse while mediators work to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil flowed before the war began at the end of February.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Reuters on Sunday that the U.S. is likely to issue new secondary sanctions weekly on Iran, with the aim of cutting the Islamic republic off entirely from the dollar-based financial system.
Brent and WTI are set to post small declines in August after falling more than 4% last week, in what was their first weekly decline in three.
While the path to a deal to reopen the strait is elusive, increases in oil flows through the Hormuz strait kept concern over supply disruption in check, ANZ analysts said in a client note.
The number of visible commodity vessels that sailed through the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend dropped to five a day, shipping data showed on Monday, reflecting caution among companies wary of attacks on ships.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported on Sunday that a tanker was struck by a projectile while sailing inbound through the strait on Saturday.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that oil from a recently struck deal with Venezuela will be used to replenish the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve which has dropped near its lowest level in 44 years.
NASA began a new mission to probe some of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics and cosmology with the launch on Sunday of the U.S. space agency’s new flagship astronomical observatory, a repurposed spy satellite that will capture panoramic views of the cosmos.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a roughly $4 billion project, was carried aloft from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a SpaceX (SPCX.O), opens new tab Falcon Heavy rocket through blue skies just after sunrise. Its mission is planned for five years, though NASA said the telescope may have enough fuel for five additional years.
[1/5] A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off carrying NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., August 30, 2026. REUTERS/Joe Skipper Purchase Licensing RightsThe telescope, which will park itself in orbit beyond the moon, is designed to investigate cosmic enigmas such as dark energy and dark matter, while also testing gravity at vast scales and searching for exoplanets, as planets beyond our solar system are called.
Sunday’s launch marked “an endpoint for the engineers, but it’s a starting point for the scientists,” Julie McEnery, Roman telescope senior project scientist, told reporters at a post-launch news conference. “It feels like I’m on the edge of a precipice, and we’re just about to set a foot off into the unknown.”
The observatory was originally designed for a spy satellite program under the National Reconnaissance Office, a part of the U.S. intelligence community that manages the most powerful American spy satellites. That program was over budget and terminated, and the NRO in 2012 donated it to NASA, which repurposed it for cosmic exploration.
Roman will travel through space toward an orbital location called Lagrange Point 2 about a million miles (1.6 million km) from Earth.
Mission scientists will spend the next 90 days commissioning it and preparing for its science operations. Roman is expected to beam back its first high-resolution images “before the winter holidays,” Roman telescope project manager Jackie Townsend said. ‘A HOUSEHOLD NAME’
Roman will build on the capabilities of other orbiting observatories such as the James Webb Space Telescope, launched in 2021, and the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990.
“I have no doubt that Roman will become a household name alongside those great instruments of discovery,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told reporters.
McEnery has said that Roman possesses broadly the same sensitivity and sharpness of vision as Hubble, but will survey the cosmos more quickly. Roman can survey our entire Milky Way galaxy in a month while Hubble would need a century, according to McEnery.
During Sunday’s news conference, Isaacman took a call from President Donald Trump and put the phone speaker up to his microphone. Trump said the launch “looked beautiful on television.”
“You are doing a fantastic job, and I’m supplying you all that money,” Trump said, referring to NASA’s approximately $24 billion 2026 budget, which survived an earlier White House proposal to cut the agency’s funding by about $6 billion.
Trump’s administration tried during both his first and second terms as president to cancel Roman or reduce its funding, but Congress preserved it. Its launch came nine months ahead of schedule, according to NASA. ‘EXQUISITE SENSITIVITY’
Webb has provided a new understanding of the universe’s early history, finding among other things that primordial galaxies formed sooner and were bigger than previously known. Webb can look across vast distances and back into deep time, because of the time it takes light to travel.
Roman instead is able to take panoramic views. NASA likens Roman to a camera’s wide-angle lens and Webb to a zoom lens.
“Webb is designed to be able to probe very deeply and with exquisite sensitivity into the universe, so we can find rare things in the early universe,” McEnery told an earlier briefing, while Roman offers “the large vision that complements the deep views that Webb provides.”
Roman will help in the understanding of two mysterious cosmic components — dark energy and dark matter — by creating the most comprehensive 3D map of the universe to date. Its main survey, to take more than a year to complete, will cover more than two billion galaxies.
The Big Bang event roughly 13.8 billion years ago initiated the universe, and it has been expanding ever since. This expansion is accelerating, with an invisible force called dark energy as the hypothesized reason.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh talk before entering a motorcade upon arrival in Asheville, before finance ministers and central bank governors from G20 countries meet in Asheville, North Carolina, U.S., August 30, 2026. REUTERS/Melissa S. Gerrits Purchase Licensing Rights
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday he will encourage G20 members to re-examine terms of trade with China to shrink global imbalances and press Beijing to rebalance its economy away from exports and toward domestic consumption.
Bessent said in an interview ahead of a G20 finance leaders meeting that the current flood of exports from China was unsustainable, even though the U.S. direct trade position with China was “rapidly improving.”
“The world cannot have a China with a $1.2 trillion trade surplus,” Bessent said. “In China, the economy is quite weak, and they are trying to export their way out of it, and they need to rebalance their economy.”
Bessent’s push to mobilize a coordinated trade response to China comes as legal setbacks force the U.S. to rebuild its tariff policy, which had sharply reduced imports from China but led to an influx of Chinese imports elsewhere, especially to Europe and Latin America.
The U.S. has walled off its economy from many Chinese goods with high tariffs and outright bans on some products including autos. Bessent said he told other industrial economies last year they would face pressures from the China import surge and that “now they are confronted with some very stark choices.”
He said it will be up to other countries to give China an incentive to shift away from exports and strengthen its chronically weak domestic demand.
“The rest of the world is going to have to examine their terms of trade with China,” Bessent said.
The U.S. is pushing for a G20 joint statement on reducing trade and current account imbalances. China’s embassy in Washington could not immediately be reached for comment on its view of the effort.
Tariffs imposed since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office in 2025 have helped cut the U.S. trade deficit with China for the first six months of 2026 by a third from the same period of 2025, to $73.9 billion, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Some acceleration of Chinese imports occurred in January of the year-earlier period as importers tried to beat anticipated tariffs.
Although some economists and European leaders have called for a coordinated effort to strengthen China’s yuan, Bessent questioned the effectiveness of such a move. The International Monetary Fund has assessed the yuan to be undervalued by as much as 21%.
Suggestions that a new “Plaza Accord” – the 1985 agreement to strengthen currencies against the dollar – was the answer to reducing imbalances are misguided, he said, calling this “an easy way to get around dealing with the real trade problem,” which he said was excessive Chinese industrial subsidies and weak domestic demand. NEXT US-CHINA SUMMIT
Bessent said it was unclear whether he would meet with his Chinese counterpart, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, in person ahead of a White House meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping slated for late September.
THOUSANDS of grieving Norwegians flooded Oslo to bid a heartbreaking farewell to King Harald V after the beloved monarch died aged 89.
Mourners packed the streets outside the Royal Palace, where Harald’s coffin now lies in state, clutching flowers, cards, drawings and Norwegian flags.
Thousands of grieving Norwegians have flooded Oslo to bid a heartbreaking farewell to King Harald VCredit: AFP
Europe’s former oldest reigning monarch died peacefully on Friday after a battle with haemolytic anaemia, bringing his 35-year reign to a sombre end.
His death plunged the Scandinavian nation into mourning, with flags lowered to half-mast and huge portraits of the late king appearing across the country.
On Friday night, huge crowds braved pouring rain to watch Harald’s funeral cortege make its solemn journey from Oslo University Hospital to the palace.
More than 20,000 people had already paid their respects by Saturday after floral tributes began piling up outside the royal residence.
Harald was widely admired for his warmth, humility and fiercely inclusive approach to modern Norway.
One mourner, Bulgarian-born teacher Veselina Vitanova, 43, said: “He meant a lot to us immigrants … We felt really very included. So, thanks to him, I feel so Norwegian.”
Caroline Vagle, a reporter for Se og Hor, said Harald “was someone who always seemed to find the words that brought us together and gave us a sense of security”.
The death of Harald led to an immediate royal succession, with his 53-year-old son Haakon automatically becoming king.
Haakon addressed the nation in a televised speech at 7pm local time on Saturday.
The King said: “Dear father, thank you for being a good father to Martha and me.
“You were the head of the family.”
He swore an oath before parliament on Tuesday, pledging to defend Norway’s constitution and laws.
“The king is dead. Long live the king,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said after meeting the new monarch.
There will be no coronation, with the centuries-old practice abolished by parliament in 1908.
Instead, Haakon could choose to have his reign blessed in a ceremony at Trondheim Cathedral.
King Charles was among those who paid an emotional tribute to his “dear cousin” following Harald’s death.
In a statement released by Buckingham Palace, he said: “It is with the most profound sadness that my wife and I have learned of the death of my dear cousin, King Harald V of Norway.”
He added: “For 35 years, King Harald served his people with unwavering dedication, guiding Norway through times of great change with warmth and humility.”
Charles said Harald was a “much-loved kinsman and friend” whose “kindness, compassion and deep sense of duty” stretched “across the sea and across the decades”.
He also highlighted the “particularly close historical and family ties” between Britain and Norway.
“The Queen and I extend our deepest and most heartfelt condolences to Queen Sonja and all her family, as Britain shares in Norway’s grief at this time of such heartbreaking loss.”
He signed the message: “Charles R.”
Harald had suffered mounting health problems in recent years and had been in hospital in Oslo since August 17.
He had been treated with cortisone for haemolytic anaemia, a rare condition in which red blood cells are destroyed unusually quickly, causing fatigue and shortness of breath.
VLADIMIR Putin is plotting a terrifying final gambit to crush Ukraine as the tyrant ramps up his blistering threats towards the UK.
As tensions between Moscow and Europe reach boiling point, the dictator is preparing to unleash a 300,000-troop “hammer blow” and crank up sabotage attacks on Nato.
Putin could be forced into one final gamble as pressure on his war machine mountsCredit: via REUTERS
Putin’s last roll of the dice could be an aggressive expansion of electronic warfare on a scale the West has never seen before.
Sabotage attacks on European GPS signals “would cause instant massive disruption and chaos”, Russian military expert Keir Giles told The Sun.
The threat of intensified asymmetric warfare on Nato comes as Putin is pushed closer to his wit’s end.
Ukraine‘s stunning strikes on key Russian targets have wreaked havoc for ordinary people – crippling fuel supplies and sparking energy blackouts over the summer.
Putin’s shadow warfare campaign could be coupled with a massive conscription of Russian troops to help punch through Ukraine‘s sturdy frontline.
Volodymyr Zelensky has said Putin is planning to draft over 300,000 new recruits to help pummel Ukraine’s defences and take the rest of Donetsk.
Fully capturing the rest of Donetsk has become a key target for Russia due to the Fortress Belt – a 50km-wide defensive line of cities which is vital to pushing enemies back.
A new conscription would be a “hammer blow of extra forces” to rejuvenate Moscow’s barbaric invasion efforts, Russia expert Mark Galeotti told The Sun.
But as Putin looks to up the ante on Nato nations, he will likely rely on one of his tried and tested methods of sparking chaos in Europe – drones.
A string of drone plots have already paralysed major airports – including a terrifying ordeal in Leipzig earlier this month which sparked panic as an explosive-laden UAV was discovered next to a fleet of planes.
It came after several packages burst into flames at warehouses in Birmingham and across Europe in 2024 having been delivered by jets.
The chilling operations are “a really cost effective way of disrupting our lives”, Galeotti said.
Europe’s increasing iron-clad commitment to Kyiv could sink Russia to new lows if it deems the strengthening partnership as a real threat.
On Monday, Andy Burnham handed Kyiv the blueprints to long-range Storm-hadow missiles to help continue Ukraine‘s campaign of strikes on key Russian targets.
Russia hit back with a furious response and issued a chilling threat to strike British military targets.
Kremlin cronies accused the UK, France and Germany of “playing with fire” and said Britain was actively “participating” in the war.
Putin mouthpiece Dmitry Peskov blasted Britain for “adding fuel to the fire”.
But Burnham hit back and said: “Who started the fire? That’s the question, isn’t it?”
This war of words from Russia is designed to sound “scary but ambiguous”, Galeotti said.
International security expert Elisabeth Braw said Europe’s growing united front against Russia could force Putin’s hand and cause a never-before-seen surge in shadow warfare attacks.
She told The Sun: “We’re likely to see more attacks on logistics hubs… but also other airports and railways.”
Putin is plotting riskier gambles to push the boundaries of their shadow warfare campaign to the limit, Giles said.
Some of these have already been “indistinguishable from warlike acts”, he said.
The brazen dictator wants to see how far he can stretch Europe without getting a significant blowback.
And there is one method that Moscow has surprisingly not tested yet – a massive GPS jamming surge.
It could cripple Europe if orchestrated effectively and leave Nato members frozen during periods of crisis.
“We should be watching for the expansion of Russia’s electronic warfare, what’s usually referred to as GPS jamming,” Giles said.
The disruption would be “enormous”, he warned.
He added: “That would cause instant massive disruption and chaos, and it’s a bit of a surprise we haven’t seen Russia testing that yet,” he said.
Putin’s shadow warfare could turn deadly on a dime – and it’s only down to pure luck that civilian casualties in Europe have been limited.
HOWARD Stern has scored a juicy HBO Max deal for his SiriusXM show, which is undergoing some new, top-secret changes.
Multiple sources confirmed to The U.S. Sun that Stern has quietly landed a major deal with the streamer to take video from his new episodes to use in a weekly TV show.
Howard Stern’s show will only be airing one day a week, and that one day a week is intricately linked to his new streaming deal, The U.S. Sun exclusively revealsCredit: The Howard Stern Show/SiriusXM
The plan, however, means Stern’s live filming schedule will not be as fluid as it seemed in recent years.
“Stern will be doing the live shows strictly on Mondays,” one source said.
“Thats why he isn’t starting this year on the Tuesday after Labor Day like he usually does.
“This is a very strict schedule for him to be able to use that show’s video for HBO Max.”
The insider said that HBO Max will use the best of Stern’s three-hour live show each week, which will be condensed into either a 90-minute or an hour-long show to air on the subscription service later in the week.
Despite HBO relying on the visuals of Stern’s radio show for this venture, one insider said fans shouldn’t expect the shock jock, who has come into the New York City studio only a handful of times since the pandemic, to suddenly go to the office.
It is unclear whether the weekly broadcast will be streamed to Stern’s YouTube channel at some point, either in it’s entirety or in parts.
Another insider compared the HBO Max deal to a similar arrangement the late Don Imus once had.
“The deal with HBO Max is not surprising. Imus did something similar with MSNBC at the end of his career, too, so the blueprint was already there for Howard to cash in on it,” the quipped.
The U.S. Sun reached out to HBO Max and reps for Stern’s SiriusXM show for comment.
This all comes on the heels of The U.S. Sun exclusively confirming that Stern’s archival channel, Howard 101, will be officially dropped come Monday.
Stern fans tuning in to Howard 101 will be in for a shock as his rival Andy Cohen takes over the frequency, with Radio Andy moving into its new home.
Historically, Stern’s setup on SiriusXM was split across two channels: Howard 100 for brand-new broadcasts and Howard 101 for classic vault material and old interviews.
Insiders previously told The U.S. Sun that the writing was on the wall for the archival channel after rounds of layoffs wiped out over a third of the team, hitting the staff running Howard 101 the hardest.
“A lot the staff who were laid off in the first round worked for his 101 channel,” a source noted, adding that many employees originally thought their jobs were safe because the archives were meant to live on long after Stern retired.
Then came another wave of cuts in July, alongside a video call where the remaining crew learned Stern’s live schedule was getting chopped down to just one day a week.
The announcement signaled a massive shift for the show’s future.
Russia continues drone strikes against Ukrainian cities, resulting in casualties and significant damage, including fatalities from a recent attack on a warehouse near Kyiv
The destruction after the Russian attack on Kyiv. Photo : AP
Ukraine says it has intelligence that Russia is planning and preparing for possible new ground offensives against the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Chernihiv. Pavlo Palisa, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, told reporters that Russian military commanders had been instructed by the country’s political leadership to plan and prepare attacks on the two cities.
He said the intelligence had been received and verified by Ukraine.
However, Palisa said there was currently no evidence that Russian troops were massing for the attacks. Ukraine’s priority, he said, was to “prevent the creation of conditions for the Russians to be able to launch any offensive actions at all”.
Russian forces previously attempted to advance on Kyiv during the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The assault was launched in part from neighbouring Belarus but was eventually repelled by Ukrainian forces.
The latest warning comes amid reports that Russia is testing its ability to mobilise additional troops.
A Wall Street Journal report said Russia was testing its readiness for another round of military mobilisation. The Kremlin is also reportedly losing more troops in Ukraine than it is recruiting, while concerns are growing that Moscow could announce a new mobilisation effort.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Saturday that “escalation from Russia’s side is progressing”.
He made the comments after a briefing with Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte. They came days after CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow and warned Russian officials against escalating the conflict with America’s Nato allies.
Tusk said Ukraine needed more air support and warned that the next six months “will be decisive”. “We must be prepared as Poland and NATO for various scenarios,” he said.
Russian Attacks Intensify
The warnings over possible ground offensives come as Russia continues to launch drone attacks on Ukrainian cities. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Kyiv was facing a “virtually nonstop attack from jet-powered drones”.
In a video address on Friday, he said Ukraine needed to “significantly accelerate” production of interceptors capable of destroying Iranian-designed Shahed drones.
At least 37 people have been killed after a Russian drone struck a warehouse near Kyiv’s western suburbs that was storing “explosive objects”, according to Ukrainian officials.
The strike damaged at least 50 residential buildings and caused a large fire and a series of explosions in the Bucha district of the Kyiv region.
A care home for elderly and disabled people was among the buildings damaged.
Regional governor Tymur Tkachenko said 42 people, including four children, were injured.
More than 370 people were evacuated from the area, Zelenskyy said, adding that the evacuation operation was continuing. He said a warehouse in the town of Myla had been hit, “followed by a detonation”.
According to Zelenskyy, the facility was a Ukrainian military depot used to store shells, drones and other ammunition. “The first impact was on a place where ammunition was being stored that absolutely should not have been there – a depot of the defence forces,” he said. “[There was] detonation of shells, mines, other munitions and drones on a significant scale,” he added.
Zelenskyy said criminal proceedings had been opened over alleged official negligence. “There are regulations in place; ammunition cannot be stored near homes or other residential areas,” he said.
Ukraine remains cautious, fearing an impending escalation from Russia.
Trump Putin Zelenskyy Meeting
CIA Director John Ratcliffe proposed a trilateral meeting between US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a covert visit to Moscow earlier this week, according to a report by Axios. The proposal was made as the Trump administration seeks to revive efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
It was the first time Ratcliffe had become personally involved in the diplomatic effort to broker a breakthrough between Moscow and Kyiv, according to the sources. Ratcliffe’s visit was partly intended to assess whether Russia’s intelligence chiefs could help persuade Putin to resume US-mediated negotiations with Ukraine.
US officials briefed Zelenskyy on Friday about Ratcliffe’s discussions in Moscow, including the proposal for a three-way summit.
The Trump administration has previously raised the possibility of such a meeting. Zelenskyy has supported the idea, while Putin has rejected it.
Ratcliffe travelled secretly to Moscow on Tuesday, where he met Russia’s foreign intelligence chief Sergey Naryshkin and Federal Security Service (FSB) director Alexander Bortnikov.
President Trump described the CIA chief’s visit as “standard business” and said it was not intended as a warning to Russia against attacking NATO territory.
According to the sources, Ratcliffe also discussed the possibility of restarting peace negotiations during his meetings in Moscow. The New York Times reported that Ratcliffe gave Bortnikov “a bleak assessment” of the war and urged Russia to reach an agreement before its position deteriorated further.
The Axios sources said Ratcliffe came away from the meeting believing Bortnikov could be a constructive figure in efforts to restart diplomatic contacts.
Ukraine remains sceptical about Putin’s willingness to pursue peace. Ukrainian officials have said they have intelligence suggesting Russia is preparing for a major escalation of the war.
Pavlo Palisa, Zelenskyy’s deputy chief of staff, told reporters on Friday that Putin had ordered the Russian military to prepare several operational scenarios for an offensive in northern Ukraine. He said Kyiv and Chernihiv had been identified as key areas.
Argentina ended the Netherlands’ 16-year unbeaten run to lift the 2026 Women’s Hockey World Cup title for the third time in their history. They won the summit clash in a penalty shootout.
Argentina won the Women’s Hockey World Cup for the third time Photo : AP
Argentina won the 2026 Women’s Hockey World Cup to stun the odds as the Netherlands’ dominance came to an end on home soil on Saturday (August 29). In the summit played at the Wagener Stadium in Amstelveen, the Argentines defeated the Dutch in a penalty shootout to lift the trophy for the third time in their history.
The game had ended in a 1-1 draw in regulation time, which forced the tie-breaker. The co-hosts took the lead in the 30th minute and looked set to seal their fourth World Cup title in a row, but Argentina managed to equalize in the closing minutes (54th) of the final quarter.
Three players from the Netherlands team missed in the shootout as they scored just once, while only one Argentinian missed while three players found the back of the net.
Netherlands’ 12-Year Reign Ends
This result means that there is a new world champion for the first time since 2014, as the Netherlands had won the title that year as well as in 2018 and 2022. The Oranje had not lost a single game in the tournament since the final of the 2010 edition. Interestingly, their last defeat was also against Argentina, who lifted the trophy at home for the second time after winning the final that year in Rosario by a 3-1 margin against the Dutchwomen.
During the 5831-day period between their two defeats in the Women’s Hockey World Cup, the Netherlands played 26 matches and won 25 while drawing one (SF victory vs Spain in 2018).
At least 626 bodies have been recovered so far, while around 2,500 people remain missing. More than 300 Indians are among those reported missing.
Rescuers use an excavator to transport a flood survivor, following flash floods and a landslide disaster in Devghat, in the Nepal’s Nuwakot district on August 26. (Photo: AFP)
A 97-year-old woman rescued from beneath the rubble of a care home after devastating floods in Nepal is recovering in hospital, according to her doctors. Guna Maya Bohara was trapped under debris after the flash floods swept through the area on Wednesday.
Her rescue took around four hours and was carried out by police and the Nepal Army. Her great-nephew, Dipak Bohara, travelled from Kathmandu to help with the operation.
‘She Looked Like A Warrior’
Speaking to BBC Nepali, Dipak said his great-aunt looked like “a warrior” who had returned victorious from battle. He recalled how his brother and son went further into the affected area using a rope tied to trees. They later told him that Guna Maya was still alive, although many others appeared to have died.
Bohara was eventually brought out of the rubble and carried to safety in the shovel of an excavator.
A video showing the 97-year-old sitting inside the excavator bucket has gone viral. Her mud-covered clothes and exhausted expression have become one of the most striking images to emerge from the disaster.
Trapped Under Care Home Rubble
Bohara had been staying at a care home when the floods tore through the area and left her trapped beneath the debris, BBC Nepali reported.
Police and the Nepal Army spent around four hours working to pull her from the rubble.
After being rescued, she was taken to hospital, where she is now recovering. She has been unable to explain how she managed to survive while trapped beneath the flood debris, Le Parisien reported, citing The Times.
Her rescue has given the wider disaster a human face, with the image of the elderly survivor being carried through the wreckage drawing attention far beyond the site.
626 Bodies Recovered, 2,500 Missing
The rescue came amid one of Nepal’s worst flood disasters, with hundreds of people confirmed dead following Wednesday’s flash floods.
Scientists believe the flooding was triggered by a glacier collapsing in the Himalayan border region with Tibet.
The collapse caused sudden and massive flooding in the Bhote Koshi River in Nepal’s Rasuwa district.
Amid the flood, Nepal officials have clarified that the country remains open and operational for foreign travellers and tourists outside the primary flood-affected districts.
Houses lie deluged in sludge after flash floods at Devghat in Nepal’s Nuwakot district on August 26, 2026. (AFP photo)
Nepal’s Bhote Koshi River floods have triggered a massive search, rescue and relief operation, with 626 bodies recovered and around 2,400 people still missing. More than 4,450 people have been rescued, including over 187 foreign nationals. Emergency operations are continuing across Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading and Chitwan, while Nepal has sought specialised international assistance for the rescue and recovery effort.
626 Bodies Recovered, 2,400 Missing
The severe flash floods in the Bhote Koshi River have left a huge trail of destruction and triggered an extensive emergency response.
According to the latest figures, 626 bodies have been recovered, while approximately 2,400 people remain missing. More than 4,450 people have been rescued so far, including over 187 foreign nationals.
Search, rescue and emergency medical operations are continuing in the worst-affected districts of Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading and Chitwan. Authorities are continuing efforts to locate those still missing and provide emergency assistance to affected communities.
Nepal Seeks Specialised International Aid
Nepal has appealed for specialised international support as rescue and relief operations continue.
An 11-member technical reconnaissance team from India has been mobilised for tunnel rescue operations. An additional specialised tunnel rescue team is expected to arrive from China.
India has also sent more than 57 tonnes of relief materials to support Nepal’s response. Essential supplies are also arriving from China, Japan, Australia and other international partners.
The assistance is expected to support the immediate rescue and relief effort as authorities deal with the scale of the disaster.
Emergency Control Room For Foreign Nationals
Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has established a dedicated Emergency Control Room to assist foreign nationals affected by the floods.
The control room will coordinate with families, assist with identification procedures and handle repatriation-related processes.
The large number of foreign nationals affected has made coordination with families and authorities an important part of the ongoing emergency response.
Damage Assessment Underway
The Nepal government has begun a detailed assessment of the damage caused by the floods.
The assessment is focused on critical infrastructure, including bridges, roads and hydropower facilities.
Given the extent of the destruction, Nepal expects international assistance to also play a role in the longer-term reconstruction process.
The government is seeking support not only for immediate rescue and relief but also for rebuilding damaged infrastructure.
Nepal Rejects Claims It Refused Foreign Aid
The Government of Nepal has rejected media reports claiming that it had turned down international assistance. It reiterated that international support is actively required for the rescue, relief and reconstruction phases of the disaster.
Authorities have also urged the public and international media to rely only on officially verified information and avoid publishing or broadcasting unconfirmed figures.
The foreign-registered haulage truck was overtaking another vehicle when it collided with the minibus, which was carrying worshippers to a conference.
Both vehicles were carrying an “unknown” number of passengers.
A minibus carrying churchgoers collided head-on with a truck in central Zimbabwe, killing at least 27 people, police said Saturday, in the latest deadly road crash to hit the country.
The crash occurred at around 1830 GMT on Friday near Chivhu, about 140 kilometres (87 miles) south of the capital Harare, police said.
The foreign-registered haulage truck was overtaking another vehicle when it collided with the minibus, which was carrying worshippers to a conference.
Both vehicles were carrying an “unknown” number of passengers, police said. Seven people were injured in the crash.
Footage shared on social media by public broadcaster ZBC showed the mangled minibus charred to a shell, with the truck coming to rest on the opposite side of the road.
The crash occurred in a flat, remote stretch of road, with low vegetation lining the roadside and open terrain beyond.
Traffic accidents are common in Zimbabwe, where roads are riddled with potholes due to years of underfunding and neglect, and driving standards can be poor.
A glacier came off a ridge on the Nepal-China border and travelled 100 km down multiple rivers, the longest part of the run being in the Trishuli.
Devighat, 55 km from the avalanche site in a straight line, 80 km along the river channel.
Before ice, rock, mud and water hurtled down one river after another, partly in Tibet (China) and mostly in Nepal, a seismic event occurred where the two countries’ borders meet, at an altitude of more than 5,000 metres in the Himalayas. That seismic event is at the centre of multiple theories since, ranging from what caused it in the immediate to what really fell.
The Shaking: What and Where Exactly?
The disaster began at 8:37 am Nepal time (8:22 am IST) on August 26 with a tremor recorded by monitoring networks across the region as a magnitude 4.4 earthquake, at first. Three days on, scientists remained divided over what that signal represented. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) later revised its interpretation of that event, saying that the seismic waves were generated by a landslide involving a glacier in Langtang National Park in Nepalese territory.
The energy released by that landslide (‘slope failure’) was the equivalent of a magnitude 5.2 earthquake, it said.
India’s remote sensing centre offered a different preliminary reading, saying that a magnitude-4.9 earthquake triggered the collapse of a glacier; and that the sequence began on the Tibetan side. The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development says the trigger remains unconfirmed.
What Fell, And Travelled
Geological reconstructions of the event, based on satellite images, reported that a part of the glacier slid down the Nepal side of a mountain; debris blocked a river on the Tibetan side; and the blocked water tore through, destroying a border port nearby before the catastrophe entered Nepal.
The US agency simply said it was “likely triggered by rapid slope failure involving a glacier in Langtang National Park, Nepal, near the border with China”. The USGS has not settled on how the landslide occurred, saying, “It is unclear if the initial slope failure was a landslide incorporating part of a glacier or a glacial collapse.”
Whether an earthquake set off the avalanche, or the avalanche triggered an earthquake-like shaking, the sequence that followed is not in dispute. The mass surged nearly 100 kilometres through the rivers Lhende Khola, Bhote Koshi and Trishuli, destroying areas in Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading in Nepal. The country’s department of hydrology recorded the Trishuli rising nine metres in 30 minutes.
That’s an inland tsunami by all measures.
Having claimed hundreds of lives, the surge calmed somewhat, and the dirt-brown water crossed into India through the Narayani river, reaching the Gandak barrage in Bihar by night. Upstream, the danger has not passed. China’s Ministry of Water Resources has warned that a new barrier lake – formed likely due to another landslide or leftovers of this one – near the border is already overflowing and at high risk of breaching.
But let’s rewind.
Where it went
Before the deadly surge passed, it left heartbreaking devastation in villages and towns of the small Himalayan nation.
Once the landslide/glacier debris tore through the river Lhende Khola, it first hit the nearby Gyirong Port, a Chinese inland port at the border, 13 km from the landslide-cum-avalanche site. That site is now flattened; no sign of the grand building.
This port serves as a major crossing for Hindu pilgrims travelling to the Hindu sacred site of Kailash Mansarovar. Cameras recorded mudflow engulfing the building.
Having entered Nepal, the surge ran down the Bhote Koshi into the Trishuli, striking Timure and Syapru Besi in Rasuwa next.
The USGS extent map traced the continuous run of close to 100 km for the primary bulk of the debris.
The wave covered its first 22 km at an average velocity of 193 kmph, experts analysed. More than 10 hydropower projects went offline in the region, taking more than 12% of Nepal’s electricity capacity.
How It Calmed, Finally
Past Dhading, the Trishuli river leaves the mountainous gorge and meets the Kali Gandaki at Devghat to become the Narayani, and crosses into India at Triveni, above the Gandak barrage at Valmikinagar in West Champaran.
Bihar’s water resources department recorded 86,000 cusecs at the barrage at noon on August 26, and rising at the time. All 36 gates were opened, discharge peaked at 1.50 lakh cusecs late that night, and had fallen to 1.04 lakh cusecs by Thursday morning, the department said in a statement. It was a scare, but the barrage has seen far more water before during the rains.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has hit back at Donald Trump by installing a large sign on Canada’s shoreline with the message: “Lake Ontario. Now and Always.”
The US president signed an executive order on Thursday seeking to change its name to Lake America and has shared a series of AI-generated videos about the lake that straddles both countries.
“Long before President Trump, this lake was called Lake Ontario. Long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario,” Ford said.
The war of words was triggered after trade talks collapsed, with the US imposing new 50% tariffs on $20bn (C$28bn) of Canadian goods. Canada will implement “dollar for dollar” counter-tariffs next month.
Trump said the decree was effective immediately as he signed the order to rename it Lake America.
While he has broad discretion over how the US recognises landmarks, other countries are not required to follow. Canadian officials have dismissed Trump’s move.
On Saturday, Trump also posted several AI-generated videos on social media, with one showing him kicking over a Lake Ontario sign and replacing it with one that says: “Welcome to Lake America.”
Another video depicted a flock of Canada geese sporting the US president’s hair and holding rifles as they patrolled the shoreline of a newly named Lake America.
Ford said Trump’s renaming of the lake was because he “didn’t like Ontario and Canada standing up for ourselves”.
Standing in front of the newly unveiled Lake Ontario sign, Ford added: “Just in case President Trump or anyone else forgets, we’ve set up this sign to remind them, it’s Lake Ontario, now and forever.”
It echoes Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s previous response to the row, insisting “things must be called by their name, and this lake is called Lake Ontario – today and forever”.
The names of four of the Great Lakes – Ontario, Huron, Michigan and Erie – originate from indigenous words. Lake Superior was named after an anglicised French word. Lake Ontario, the smallest of the Great Lakes, borders both the Canadian province and the US state of New York.
A former White House teleprompter operator has been ordered to pay more than $172,000 (£127,000) for using inside information to bet on Donald Trump’s speeches.
Gabriel Perez was found to have made trades concerning what the US president would say during addresses between December 2025 and February 2026 on Kalshi – a prediction markets platform where users can bet on real-world events.
Its regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said Perez would have to surrender profits of $107,539.02 and pay a civil penalty of $65,000.
The White House has not yet commented. In July, then-press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Perez was on unpaid leave and would not return to his post.
Announcing the settlement on Friday, the CFTC said Perez had “misappropriated” his prior knowledge of Trump’s speeches to place bets “in breach of his duty of trust and confidence”.
It said his civil penalty had been reduced due to his “exemplary co-operation” with the investigation.
Perez has also been banned from trading for three years.
Kalshi’s lead lawyer Bobby DeNault welcomed the decision, writing on X: “It doesn’t matter who you are: violate our rules or federal law and you will face the consequences.”
The company previously told the BBC that its analysts had noticed unusual betting on “mention markets” – contracts through which users predict whether a speaker will use common terms, such as specific countries, campaign slogans or words – in March.
Two NYC Democratic Socialists of America leaders have been caught living the ultimate capitalist dream, with one quietly collecting millions in real estate flips and another nesting in a sleek $500,000 Brooklyn apartment, The Post has learned.
Labor Coordinator Olivia Gonzalez Killingsworth sold a luxe Upper West Side triplex in a brownstone building for $2.4 million on Sept. 12, 2022, according to public records.
DSA labor coordinator Olivia Killingsworth sold a $2.4 million triplex in 2022. bluesky / olivekilworth
The “huge, versatile” two-bedroom, three-bathroom triplex just a block away from Central Park boasts sweeping 10-foot-high ceilings overlooking a fireplace, marble shower stalls, bay windows with a view of the gorgeous Callery Pear blossoms that line the street.
“Once again we’re finding out why DSA actually stands for Daddy’s Savings Account. Selling a multimillion-dollar Manhattan Triplex to go play pretend bohemian with your rich comrades in Brooklyn is a luxury working-class New Yorkers will never have,” said NYC Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (R-Queens).
Killingsworth, who runs her own bookkeeping business and is also an actor and singer, according to her website, was elected labor coordinator in 2025.
She inherited the triplex from her aunt Elizabeth who died in 2018 and used the profits from the sale on a half-million-dollar one-bedroom pad in Brooklyn, according to Healthbeat and public records.
The lefty actor purchased the apartment for $521,000 on Sept. 14, 2022 — just two days after selling the triplex with her relatives.
Also plotting to seize the means of production from the comfort of her fully owned one-bedroom apartment is DSA Steering Committee chair Julie Swoope, who has a half-million-dollar pad in Brooklyn.
The $510,000 one-bedroom co-op located blocks away from Prospect Park boasts of high ceilings, skyline views and great closet space, per its Streeteasy profile.
It was purchased in 2021, according to public records.
Swoope’s mother, Gail Cunningham Swoope, was an artist who traveled for three years on her “live-aboard sailboat” and was a member of the New Smyrna Beach Boat and Ski Club, according to her obituary.
Both apartments are over $100,000 above the average home price in the United States, which is $387,400, according to 2026 US Census and Department of Housing and Urban Development data.
Nearly 70% of NYC residents are renters, leaving the two socialists woefully out of step with the needs of the working-class people they claim to represent, critics said.
At the US Open, the score is love-bling — with players glamming it up in their gems of choice.
The tennis world’s best wear high-priced jewelry to express personal style and fulfill lucrative brand ambassador contracts, with prices ranging from a paltry $45 to over $150,000 for bespoke on-court pieces, according to media reports.
Major luxury houses like Material Good and Tiffany & Co. sign elite athletes like Aryna Sabalenka and Amanda Anisimova, allowing the court to function as a high-fashion runway. And unlike many other sports leagues, tennis has no restrictions prohibiting fine jewelry during matches.
The book “ACE’s” insightful commentary traces the evolution of tennis style throughout the years. abramsbooks.com
Sports legend Chris Evert accidentally invented the term “tennis bracelet” in 1978.
“It was Forest Hills — and I was sweating profusely,” recalled Evert, now 71, in the new book ACE – The Times & Style of Tennis by Sunita Kumar Nair. “I lost the bracelet at midpoint, and the game was stopped so I could find it. Later, people asked why it was stopped, I said, ‘Oh it was my tennis bracelet.”
Today’s players are taking their on-court sparkle to Grand Slam levels.
World No. 1 ranked player Aryna Sabalenka, 28, is the ambassador for New York jeweler Material Good and has been competing in custom-made pieces.
For the 2026 US Open game she played on August 25, the Belarusian pro adorned her bod with three heavyweight sparklers from New York City-based jeweler Material Good.
The super-bling consisted of a matching necklace, bracelet and drop earrings, collectively set with more than 127 carats of colored stones, a mix of sapphires, tourmaline, garnet, zircon, spinel, chrysoberyl and tanzanite in a variety of shapes. Each piece goes for a staggering $110,000, according to Material Good.
But Sabalenka shrugged it off, and told People: “If I feel good, looking-wise, I feel great.”
Emma Navarro, who’s won three WTA Tour titles, has found her perfect match in Mejuri. The company’s pieces go for Mejuri range from a relatively affordable prices starting at $98 for gold hoop earrings to $2,600 for her necklace.
“[Jewelry] is my way of showing a bit of my own personal style since I am always wearing tennis clothes,” Navarro, 25, told Tennis.com.
Fellow American Amanda Anisimova, 24, the world’s No. 3 ranked player, has gone for one of jewelry’s biggest names: Tiffany & Co. At the 2025 US Open, Anisimova wore Tiffany HardWear earrings that go for $3,950, along with a pendant and bracelets set that totals a must-be-nice $10,000.
“I like items I can wear on the court … and to dinner,” she told Marie Claire.
Jessica Pegula, 32, and Iva Jovic, 18, are part of Gorjana’s Sports Club initiative. The players prefer Gorjana’s solid 14K gold pieces because they won’t tarnish from sweat on the court. They go for a pricey $5,300, while Pegula’s mini tennis ball “Scout Charm” goes for a mere $45.
“I mix it up depending on the season and the tournament,” Jovic told W ahead of this year’s Open.
Coco Gauff, 22, also considers jewelry part of the uniform. “Usually I try to wear a necklace during the whole tournament,” she said. One of her favorite necklaces is the Olympic rings necklace. While the price is a money mystery as it was a gift from a friend, similar pieces go for about $2,500.
Radical Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s racially charged swipe at Second Lady Usha Vance is badly backfiring, threatening to alienate Michigan’s 130,000 Indian-Americans and crucial female voters, insiders told The Post.
The unprovoked jab at the second lady exposed El-Sayed’s own insecurities said one GOP insider, who accused the anti-Israel Democrat of victimizing women to look tough when he snidely posted to X: “So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no …”
“I think Abdul has a Napoleon complex and he victimizes women to look tough instead of the actual men he claims to have a problem with,” the insider told The Post.
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed faces blowback for bringing up second lady Usha Vance to go after Vice President JD Vance. Getty Images
Vance himself has yet to address the swipe at his wife – but is expected to put El-Sayed on blast when he flies to Michigan Monday to campaign in the state’s 10th Congressional District near Detroit, insiders told The Post.
“For sure” he’s going to come out swinging, state GOP party co-chair Sunny Reddy told The Post. “He’s going to see more reaction from the community,” he said.
The swing state ranks third nationally in female voter participation, with 69% of women turning out, according to Census Bureau data, about 10 points above the national average.
Republicans see an opportunity to try to peel away South Asian voters from El-Sayed, whose parents are Egyptian immigrants, in a race that pits him against former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.).
El-Sayed leads Rogers by less than a percentage point in the RealClearPolitics average.
Michigan state GOP chair Reddy said family members should be off limits.
“We may have differences. We attack each other. But going to the family and the kids is a disaster,” he fumed. “They are not the one running.”
Reddy predicted it would hurt El-Sayed with middle-aged women, Indian-Americans, and other ethnic groups, and slammed him for dragging Usha’s recent pregnancy into his attacks.
“Enough is enough,” he said, adding that the party is already working to put El-Sayed’s comments into an ad. The state party and Indian-American leaders demanded Friday that El-Sayed apologize.
Reddy was referencing another crude El-Sayed remark that brought up Usha – this one during the candidate’s April appearance on “The Allen Analysis Show” podcast. “What do you think is going through Usha’s head when [JD Vance] talks? She’s like, ‘Damn, I have to sleep with him,’” he said. “I guess she’s pregnant so something is happening.”
The nasty attack, which relates to the vice president’s late father James Lee Vance, known as “Pawpaw,” ultimately fell flat on its face as Vance deftly neutralized the smear.
She told Fox News in an interview last week she “kind of laughed” when she heard it – but then punctured the attack by saying how “incredibly loving” his children were to her and that the late Pawpaw would have done the same.
Vance invoked his Pawpaw on a trip to Ohio last Friday when he accused El-Sayed of saying if you criticize Sharia law “you’re a white supremacist.”
Dolly Parton’s niece, Lainey Mae Parton, wrote an emotional Instagram post Saturday confirming that her aunt was “laid to rest” on Friday, August 28.
“This is a really hard post for me to make,” Lainey wrote on her account, captioning a slideshow of pictures showing the superstar with various family members. “I wanted to wait until after my granny was laid to rest yesterday before I tried to put any of this into words.”
Lainey went on to praise Dolly— the singer was known as “Aunt Granny” to her nieces and nephews — by noting that she was a tremendous source of support.
Dolly Parton’s niece confirmed in a social media post that her aunt was “laid to rest” yesterday. (Dolly is seen here with some of her family members.) Lainey Mae Parton/Instagram
“She always had a way of making me feel like I was enough. She never made my dreams feel too big or made me feel like I couldn’t do something. She believed in me before I even knew how to believe in myself,” Lainey wrote.
“Most people can think of at least one bad memory with everyone in their family,” she added. “I honestly can’t think of one with her.”
Noting that her aunt was unable to have kids of her own and thus made all of her nieces and nephews feel like “hers,” Lainey heartbreakingly related, “It still doesn’t feel real that she’s gone. I’m going to miss her voice, her laugh, her hugs, and just knowing she was there.”
Page Six reported on Friday that Dolly’s loved ones gathered at her Nashville burial site, Woodlawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum.
A source also exclusively told us Friday’s gathering was, indeed, the funeral.
[1/4] A banner with a picture of U.S. President Donald Trump next to an Iranian missile system at Azadi Square in Tehran, Iran, July 30, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS Purchase Licensing RightsIranian leaders are acknowledging the economic toll of war with the U.S., with the supreme leader urging the government to address the hardship and the president saying foreign trade has shrunk by a third due to the American sanctions and blockade.
Yet Tehran signalled no retreat on Saturday, vowing to withstand U.S. pressure, pursue diplomacy and maintain what it said was control over the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway giving Iran leverage through its ability to disrupt global energy markets.
The government said in a statement on state media that addressing economic pressures caused by sanctions and war was a central focus, including curbing inflation, managing markets, creating jobs, directing investment towards domestic production and gradually reducing dependence on the dollar.
Six months after the U.S. and Israel launched the war, negotiations are at an impasse and President Donald Trump’s administration has stepped up efforts to punish Iran financially with what it has billed as an “economic D-Day”. SANCTIONS COMPOUND TOLL ON IRAN’S ECONOMY
Washington has warned countries to cut business ties with Iran or face secondary sanctions, though the Treasury Department stopped short of imposing penalties against major Iranian trade partners such as China and India, which could have repercussions for the U.S. and global economies.
The Treasury imposed sanctions on Egypt’s Banque Misr for doing business with Tehran, proposing a rule that would cut off the bank’s branches in the United Arab Emirates from dollar transactions.
Egypt’s central bank said it and the foreign ministry were in contact with U.S. officials concerning the matter, adding the measure was limited to Banque Misr UAE’s U.S. dollar transactions with correspondent banks only.
Banque Misr said on Saturday it was reviewing the U.S. Treasury notice, adding that its branch in the UAE continued to provide banking services to its customers.
The U.S. has also issued sanctions targeting an entity based in Hong Kong and a person linked to Iran’s Bank Melli, according to a notice on the Treasury website.
The sanctions drive compounds the toll of the war on Iran’s economy, where annual inflation hit 66% last month.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei — who has not been seen publicly since he was injured in the initial February 28 attack that killed his father and former Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — called on the government to tackle the economic hardship.
“There is the need to seriously address the chain of economic and livelihood challenges, such as inflation, unemployment, management of prices and the market for goods and services,” he said, according to a written statement attributed to Khamenei.
President Masoud Pezeshkian told state media that Iranian exports and imports had slumped nearly 35% because of U.S. sanctions and a naval blockade of Iranian ports.
But he said Iran was able to sell about 90 million barrels of oil during the short-lived memorandum of understanding that the U.S. and Iran signed in June, when Washington permitted Iranian oil sales.
Later on Saturday, Pezeshkian called on state TV for a revival of the interim deal, which was signed on June 17 but quickly unravelled amid disagreements over what had been agreed, especially on the status of the Strait of Hormuz.
“We can solve our problems and gain our privileges with the memorandum of understanding,” he said of a document that had offered Iran, among other things, immediate relief from U.S. sanctions and the release of its frozen assets. IRAN VOWS TO PURSUE DIPLOMACY AND DEFENCE
With the U.S. focused on its economic pressure campaign, others have sought to revive diplomatic efforts to end the war.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met with Iranian leaders in Tehran on Thursday. He said he had stressed during the meeting the importance of returning to the pre-war status of open shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi on Friday described the talks with Al Thani as “creative”.
In Saturday’s statement, Iran said diplomacy and defence were “two complementary, coordinated and inseparable wings” for protecting the country’s national interests, security and territorial integrity. It said it would pursue both tracks in a balanced manner.
Qatar, a U.S. ally and Gulf neighbour to Iran, and Pakistan helped broker the June memorandum of understanding.
Before the war, the Strait of Hormuz carried 20% of the world’s oil and LNG. U.S. military commanders say American forces have cleared sea mines from the strait that had been laid months ago by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
[1/5]Tankers anchor near Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA’s Jose terminal while waiting to load and discharge, in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela August 9, 2026. REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria Purchase Licensing RightsPresident Donald Trump on Friday announced an unprecedented U.S. push to take control of a fifth of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, betting that American companies can revive the OPEC nation’s battered energy industry while delivering a new source of crude to help bring down U.S. fuel prices.
Trump provided few details about the agreement, saying only that the U.S. had secured majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s proven oil reserves through a partnership with private business.
The South American nation’s leader welcomed the agreement, saying it would boost the economy and government revenue.
The new deal would represent a dramatic expansion of the U.S. role in Venezuela’s oil industry as the Trump administration seeks to revive the country’s production and secure more crude for U.S. refineries. Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves but produces only about 1.25 million barrels per day, far below its potential after years of underinvestment, mismanagement and sanctions. RUBIO CALLS DEAL A WIN-WIN
“At my direction, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, working closely with Highly Respected Interim President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, and, through a partnership with private business, have secured majority U.S. control of more than 65 BILLION BARRELS of proven Oil Reserves in Venezuela, at no cost to the American Taxpayer,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The announcement followed weeks of U.S.-Venezuelan negotiations over a deal that would give American companies long-term access to a group of Venezuelan oilfields and guarantee the resulting crude supply to the United States.
Venezuelan officials are preparing to sign agreements next week granting new oil exploration and production rights to a number of companies, particularly U.S. firms.
Sources have told Reuters that a lease model was under consideration, with fields potentially auctioned to U.S. producers, but the arrangement could face legal and constitutional challenges in Venezuela, where the state retains control over core oil industry activities.
Trump did not disclose the structure of the agreement, the fields or companies involved or how the United States would exercise majority control over the reserves. A list seen by Reuters shows the fields are in the Orinoco Belt and Lake Maracaibo regions.
Rubio described the agreement as a win for both countries, saying on X that it would secure stable, low-cost oil for the United States and help lower gasoline prices.
For Venezuela, Rubio said the deal would bring nearly $100 billion in private investment, support thousands of high-paying jobs and help rebuild the country’s economy.
Rodriguez, who became interim leader after the U.S. seized President Nicolas Maduro in January, said late on Friday that the agreement would allow for a significant increase in production through the development of 17 strategic fields and result in tax revenue for the country totaling $209 billion.
“These investments will contribute not only to the recovery and modernization of our industry, but also to our country’s economic growth, the energy security of our hemisphere, and greater balance in international markets,” she said in a statement.
LEGAL BASIS, FINANCIAL STRUCTURE UNCLEAR
Analysts said they needed to see more details on the agreement’s legal and financial structure before assessing whether it could attract significant investment.
Also unclear is whether the deal will lower gasoline prices in the short term, as developing the infrastructure needed to produce, transport and refine Venezuela’s heavy crude could take years.
David Goldwyn, president of Goldwyn Global Strategies, said it was unclear whether a U.S. government lease would have a legal basis under Venezuela’s constitution and its new hydrocarbons law, adding that there is “no precedent for having the U.S. government enter into a lease to operate oil fields.”
Goldwyn also questioned whether the plan would address the obstacles that have deterred investment in Venezuela for years. “It is hard to see how this kind of arrangement would accelerate investment at any material scale,” he said, citing political uncertainty, an inadequate power grid, limited export capacity and government discretion over the industry.
Since removing Maduro, Washington has been trying to secure a stable flow of Venezuelan crude for U.S. refineries while promoting American investment in the country’s oil industry.
Since the United States went to war with Iran six months ago, Courtney Sanders has been helping soldiers’ families fill the gaps left by their loved ones.
There are school pickups to coordinate, lost incomes to supplement — and the ever-present separation anxiety.
[1/4]Family members are presented with a flag during the burial service for U.S. soldier Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, who was killed in an attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, at the Long Island National Cemetery, in New York, U.S., July 31, 2026. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights“It’s like being on pins and needles all of the time,” Sanders said.
She leads the Chicagoland chapter of Blue Star Families, the nation’s largest nonprofit serving military families, and her own daughters are in the U.S. Navy. They have served in various overseas locations over the past six months, including the Middle East.
The U.S. has more than 50,000 troops stationed across the region and has deployed thousands of additional Marines and sailors to support the war effort. Eighteen U.S. service members have been killed in the conflict and more than 750 wounded.
During the war’s on-and-off fighting, shuttle diplomacy and failed peace talks, military families have experienced a “roller coaster of emotions,” Sanders said. “The moment that you feel you’re able to take a breath, you get gut-punched again.”
These are familiar pressures for the partners and children, mothers and fathers, of American troops. But the suddenness of the Iranian conflict, and its fitful pace, have had a compounding effect, relatives told Reuters.
In a Blue Star Families poll of some 200 active-duty military families in early March, 81% reported elevated stress from the Iran conflict.
The group has responded by stepping up its programming, creating online resource hubs, hosting webinars and in-person meet-ups, and matching military spouses going through a deployment for the first time with those who have been through it before.
Many service members’ deployments have been extended unexpectedly.
The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier went more than 200 days without a port call — a modern-day record, according to Democratic lawmakers — and military outlets reported, opens new tab suicide attempts and declining morale among its 5,000 sailors and Marines. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the reports “completely misrepresented” the conditions on board.
Some military families find themselves in financial straits.
National Guard members, for example, often work regular jobs when they are not deployed. The sudden loss of their main paycheck can make it hard for those left behind to keep food on the table, Sanders said.
“There is a huge misconception in the civilian world that if you are in the military, all of your bills are taken care of,” she said. “And that is just frankly not true.”
In a statement, the Pentagon said: “We see these families (and) we hear their concerns. We will do whatever is necessary to provide the resources, assistance, and stability they need and deserve during these challenging times.” ‘A LOT OF EMOTIONS’
Shannon, an Army spouse and mother of three in North Carolina who requested Reuters use only her first name for security reasons, tries to tune out the news and the political debate surrounding the war.
In February, her husband deployed to the region with five days’ notice and could only contact her sporadically for the first several months.
Although they have maintained near-daily communication since June, “there are a lot of emotions,” Shannon said, “especially when people are dying over there.”
Her children started therapy over the summer. She tries to be strong in front of them, but cries sometimes when they’re not around.
Soon after her husband’s deployment, Shannon joined an Army-sponsored soldier-and-family “readiness group” within her husband’s unit, helping organize meal trains and other support for family members in need.
“Every day is not going to be a great day, but you’ve gotta just keep going and keep yourself busy,” she said.
A drone picture shows the main street of a suburb in Niamey, Niger January 30, 2026. REUTERS/ Mahamadou Hamidou Purchase Licensing Rights
Mutinous soldiers in Niger attacked the airport and the presidency in the capital, Niamey, early on Saturday, triggering hours of gunfire and explosions and briefly knocking state television and radio off air.
By late morning, Niger’s defence ministry said the armed forces were gradually retaking sites seized in the overnight attack, but security sources said mutineers were still at the airport in the afternoon and the overall situation remained unclear Saturday night.
The attack marked the latest threat to the rule of Abdourahamane Tiani, who seized power in a 2023 coup. Tiani had pledged to improve security in the Sahel nation, a major uranium producer, but jihadist attacks have persisted.
State television, after resuming broadcasts, aired a message saying mutinous soldiers from a base in Niamey had opened fire on “sensitive sites” in the city.
Security forces had reacted quickly and “contained this disturbance”, it said.
Earlier this year, affiliates of al Qaeda and Islamic State carried out attacks on the civilian airport and military airbase. Some security observers initially suspected militants were behind Saturday’s assault.
Tiani made no public appearances on Saturday. Even if he survives the mutiny, the unrest raises the prospect that resources otherwise spent fighting jihadists will need to go towards policing internal threats, said Heni Nsaibia, senior analyst for West Africa of Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED).
“The jihadist groups will be the only winners in this situation,” he said. TROOPS JOINING MUTINY FROM OUTSIDE CAPITAL
A Reuters witness reported gunfire at the airport and military airbase, where Russian and Italian forces are stationed, and heavy explosions in the pre-dawn hours.
As of 0900 GMT, the presidential palace appeared to have been secured by loyalist troops but the area around the airport was still contested, two security sources and a diplomat said.
The defence ministry statement referred to an effort by the mutineers “to detain some of their comrades” at the military airbase, without providing details.
Two sources said loyalist troops had been dispatched to retake control of the airport, either through negotiations or by force.
The Alliance of Sahel States (AES), made up of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, voiced support for Niger’s military and said in a statement on Saturday night that the mutineers had been thwarted. It was unclear whether Mali and Burkina Faso provided any concrete military support to Niger on Saturday.
The mutineers’ operation also involved soldiers from the localities of Ouallam, Tera and Dosso in the southwest, according to a Niger security source and Yvan Guichaoua, senior researcher at the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies.
Troops in this area have sustained heavy casualties in battles with the regional Islamic State affiliate. Analysts and security sources say frustration with the government is mounting within frontline units.
“Just a week ago, some 18 soldiers were killed in an attack on their position in the southern Dosso region. These mass-casualty overrun attacks on the Nigerien military are becoming commonplace and will continue to fuel unrest and aggravate tensions within the army ranks,” Nsaibia said.
It was not clear how many troops allied with the mutineers had entered Niamey or where they had deployed.
